Electroporation temporarily makes a cell’s membrane porous, allowing molecules to pass through. It has applications in genetic engineering, drug delivery, and research. However, it can damage cells if not done carefully and cannot control what passes through the membrane.
Electroporation is a process designed to make a cell’s plasma membrane temporarily porous so that molecules can pass through it freely. There are numerous applications for this process, ranging from transfection of the DNA of organisms being studied in the laboratory to the potential for targeted drug delivery such as chemotherapy that could be forced directly into cancer cells using electroporation techniques. Several scientific equipment manufacturers produce devices that can be used for electroporation.
In this procedure, an electric current is introduced into a cell or group of cells. Studies have shown that electroporation can be performed both in vitro and in vivo, on living cells inside and outside the body of a host organism, including unicellular organisms. The electric current disrupts the plasma membrane of the cells, creating openings where none previously existed.
If a substance is in solution with cells, it will pass over the cell membrane after the introduction of an electric current. Then, the cells can be allowed to rest and recover. In some cases, up to 80% of the cells can be successfully penetrated with the substance of interest. Once the cells have recovered, they can be cultured and tested to confirm that the electroporation was successful.
There are some disadvantages of electroporation. One problem is that if the amount of electricity is not calculated carefully, damage to the cells can occur. This is undesirable when the goal is to obtain healthy cells that can be used in research or when the goal is to introduce something into a cell of an organism without harming it. It is also not possible to control what passes through the cell membrane, which means that if there are impurities in the solution or electroporation does not take place in a controlled environment, potentially harmful molecules could end up inside the cell.
In the laboratory, electroporation is used to introduce DNA into cells for the purpose of genetic engineering. In theory, the same process could also be used for gene therapy in living organisms. Plasmids, drugs and other types of molecules can also be transferred across the cell membrane with the help of electroporation. An advantage of using this technique for in vitro work in the laboratory is that large numbers of cells can be processed simultaneously, reducing the time spent processing cells for research.
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