Premium
Electroporation of a lipid bilayer as a chemical reaction
Author(s) -
Bier Martin,
Gowrishankar T.R.,
Chen Wei,
Lee Raphael C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.20060
Subject(s) - electroporation , lipid bilayer , millisecond , biophysics , membrane potential , transmembrane protein , membrane , chemistry , chemical physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , physics , biology , chromatography , biochemistry , receptor , astronomy , gene
When a cell's transmembrane potential is increased from a physiological one to more than 370 mV, the transmembrane current increases more than hundredfold within a millisecond. This is due to the formation of conductive pores in the membrane. We construct a model in which we conceive of pore formation as a voltage sensitive chemical reaction. The model predicts the logarithm of the pore formation rate to increase proportionally to the square of the voltage. We measure currents through frog muscle cell membranes under 8 ms pulses of up to 440 mV. The experimental data appear consistent with the model. Bioelectromagnetics 25:634–637, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.