INTRACELLULAR EFFECTS OF NANOSECOND PULSED ELECTRIC FIELDS ON JURKAT CELLS

摘要

Recently, intense ultra short pulsed electric fields (US-PEF) have been demonstrated to selectively interact with intracellular membranes, disclosing new scenarios in biological and medical applications, including gene and drug delivery and cancer therapy [1]. Aim of this work is to investigate the effects of the exposure to a single pulse of 60 ns duration and 2.5 MV/m amplitude, on T-leukaemia Jurkat cells. For the exposure a cuvette based system was employed and the effect on DNA was assessed by means of the alkaline comet assay. Moreover, membrane poration and cell viability were evaluated by propidium iodide (PI) ,and trypan blue exclusion methods, respectively. Results of pilot experiments showed a reduction of the percentage of DNA in the comet tail (% DNA) in the exposed samples with respect to sham-exposed ones. The observed effect was detected in-absence of PI uptake and was not associated with cell death.