Fig 1.
Schematic diagram of cell fusion using a sequential nanosecond/microsecond electric field pulse combination.
100-ns-long strong field pulse induced many tiny pores in the cell membrane, particularly in the junction region. After a brief delay, fusion process was followed by a low-field 10-microsecond pulse, which enlarged the pores.
Fig 2.
(a) Modeled electrical pulse shapes, magnitudes, and pulse width. (b) Geometry of the simulation. The two cells were contacted to each other in a rectangular 200-μm-long by 100-μm-wide frame. The inset was magnifying part of the cell junction area.
Table 1.
Model parameters.
Fig 3.
Distribution of pore radius along the two-cell membrane.
(a) Results of the nanosecond pulses, (b) the microsecond pulses, and (c) the nanosecond/microsecond pulses. (d) Graphical overlay of the results of the three pulses.
Fig 4.
Time evolution of the pore radius at three locations selected along the two-cell membrane was shown.
In (a). Blue represented the large cell pole, green represented the midpoint of the two-cell junction region, and red represented the small cell pole. (b) Results of the nanosecond pulses, (c) the microsecond pulses, and (d) the combined nanosecond/microsecond pulses.
Fig 5.
(a-c) Two-dimensional pore density distributions along the surface of the two cell membranes. (d) Graph of pore densities along the surface of the two cell membranes. The dashed gray lines indicate the cell contact area.
Fig 6.
Nanosecond pulse results were shown in (a), the microsecond pulse in (b), and the pulse combination in (c). The dashed purple line represented a pore density of 1013 m-2.
Fig 7.
(a) represented the TMV simulation region. In 7(b), the red, black, and the green curves represented the TMV under the nanosecond pulse, the microsecond pulse, and the nanosecond/microsecond pulse combination respectively.
Fig 8.
Calculation model of charge time constant.