Numerical Study to Probe Effects of Strain Energy on Pore Formation and Their Density Distribution

Electroporation is an important pathway to transport material such as drugs, genes, and ions into biological cells. Here, we perform simulations to predict the pore density and transmembrane potential due to high-intensity, ultra-short duration electrical pulses. Explicit account is taken of the strain energy. Our continuum model results demonstrate that pore density increases rapidly and nonlinearly with respect to the transmembrane potential. The numerical calculations also show that average strain energy can work towards membrane stabilization and that the energy needed to form a two-pore system would be smaller than a one pore system. This differential between the one- and two-pore scenarios is predicted to increase monotonically with pore radius. It is also predicted that the membrane would likely produce multiple nanopores of high density, as hypothesized in the literature. The potential for pore formation and transient leak-out would both likely reduce the membrane tension, favoring smaller multiple nanopores.