Asadipour Kamal, Zhou Carol, Yi Vincent, Beebe Stephen J, Xiao Shu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA.
Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA.
Bioengineering (Basel). 2023 Sep 10;10(9):1069. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering10091069.
High-intensity nanosecond pulse electric fields (nsPEF) can preferentially induce various effects, most notably regulated cell death and tumor elimination. These effects have almost exclusively been shown to be associated with nsPEF waveforms defined by pulse duration, rise time, amplitude (electric field), and pulse number. Other factors, such as low-intensity post-pulse waveform, have been completely overlooked. In this study, we show that post-pulse waveforms can alter the cell responses produced by the primary pulse waveform and can even elicit unique cellular responses, despite the primary pulse waveform being nearly identical. We employed two commonly used pulse generator designs, namely the Blumlein line (BL) and the pulse forming line (PFL), both featuring nearly identical 100 ns pulse durations, to investigate various cellular effects. Although the primary pulse waveforms were nearly identical in electric field and frequency distribution, the post-pulses differed between the two designs. The BL's post-pulse was relatively long-lasting (50 µs) and had an opposite polarity to the main pulse, whereas the PFL's post-pulse was much shorter (2 µs) and had the same polarity as the main pulse. Both post-pulse amplitudes were less than 5% of the main pulse, but the different post-pulses caused distinctly different cellular responses. The thresholds for dissipation of the mitochondrial membrane potential, loss of viability, and increase in plasma membrane PI permeability all occurred at lower pulsing numbers for the PFL than the BL, while mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation occurred at similar pulsing numbers for both pulser designs. The PFL decreased spare respiratory capacity (SRC), whereas the BL increased SRC. Only the PFL caused a biphasic effect on trans-plasma membrane electron transport (tPMET). These studies demonstrate, for the first time, that conditions resulting from low post-pulse intensity charging have a significant impact on cell responses and should be considered when comparing the results from similar pulse waveforms.
高强度纳秒脉冲电场(nsPEF)能够优先诱导多种效应,最显著的是调节细胞死亡和消除肿瘤。几乎所有这些效应都已被证明与由脉冲持续时间、上升时间、幅度(电场)和脉冲数定义的nsPEF波形有关。其他因素,如低强度的脉冲后波形,却完全被忽视了。在本研究中,我们表明,尽管主脉冲波形几乎相同,但脉冲后波形可以改变由主脉冲波形产生的细胞反应,甚至能引发独特的细胞反应。我们采用了两种常用的脉冲发生器设计,即勃鲁姆莱茵线(BL)和脉冲形成线(PFL),两者都具有近乎相同的100纳秒脉冲持续时间,以研究各种细胞效应。尽管主脉冲波形在电场和频率分布上几乎相同,但两种设计的脉冲后波形有所不同。BL的脉冲后波形相对持久(约50微秒),且与主脉冲极性相反,而PFL的脉冲后波形则短得多(约2微秒),且与主脉冲极性相同。两种脉冲后波形的幅度均小于主脉冲的5%,但不同的脉冲后波形导致了明显不同的细胞反应。线粒体膜电位耗散、活力丧失和质膜PI通透性增加的阈值在PFL中出现时的脉冲数低于BL,而两种脉冲发生器设计产生线粒体活性氧的脉冲数相似。PFL降低了备用呼吸能力(SRC),而BL增加了SRC。只有PFL对跨质膜电子传递(tPMET)产生双相效应。这些研究首次证明,低强度脉冲后充电产生的条件对细胞反应有显著影响,在比较相似脉冲波形的结果时应予以考虑。