Electric Field Distribution in Cell Aggregates in Presence of Nanostructures Under Electroporation Pulses

Cell aggregates are numerically modelled to mimic in vitro experiments of cellular spheroid subjected to high intensity pulsed electric filed inducing electroporation. The effect of presence of iron oxide nanoparticles close to cells is studied by numerical simulations. The electric field distribution is analyzed by means of Finite Element Analysis in the case of electroporation pulses protocol in order to assess the effect of different nanoparticles distributed around the cell aggregates. Moreover, the role of the collagen and of its interaction with the nanoparticles is also considered in order to corroborate the experimentally detected improvement of electroporation effect in less intense electric field protocol. The comparison between static and transient analysis results highlights the role of the material dielectric properties.