Interfacial water probing by CARS spectroscopy on biological samples exposed to intense pulsed electric fields

The main consequence of the interaction between cells and pulsed electric fields is the destabilization of the plasma membrane leading to its permeabilization. Previous vibrational spectroscopy studies (S.M. Gruenbaum et al., J. Chem. Phys., 135, 2011) have shown that interfacial water is highly organized around the phospholipids of the membrane. Moreover, various numerical studies (such as Molecular Dynamics simulations) have shown that the interfacial water is highly disturbed by the pulsed electric field. We detail here a study of the behavior of the interfacial water around biological objects, before and after exposition to intense pulsed electric fields, by Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) spectroscopy.