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Adrenal Chromaffin Cells Exposed to 5-ns Pulses Require Higher Electric Fields to Porate Intracellular Membranes than the Plasma Membrane: An Experimental and Modeling Study

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Abstract

Nanosecond-duration electric pulses (NEPs) can permeabilize the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), causing release of Ca2+ into the cytoplasm. This study used experimentation coupled with numerical modeling to understand the lack of Ca2+ mobilization from Ca2+-storing organelles in catecholamine-secreting adrenal chromaffin cells exposed to 5-ns pulses. Fluorescence imaging determined a threshold electric (E) field of 8 MV/m for mobilizing intracellular Ca2+ whereas whole-cell recordings of membrane conductance determined a threshold E-field of 3 MV/m for causing plasma membrane permeabilization. In contrast, a 2D numerical model of a chromaffin cell, which was constructed with internal structures representing a nucleus, mitochondrion, ER, and secretory granule, predicted that exposing the cell to the same 5-ns pulse electroporated the plasma and ER membranes at the same E-field amplitude, 3–4 MV/m. Agreement of the numerical simulations with the experimental results was obtained only when the ER interior conductivity was 30-fold lower than that of the cytoplasm and the ER membrane permittivity was twice that of the plasma membrane. A more realistic intracellular geometry for chromaffin cells in which structures representing multiple secretory granules and an ER showed slight differences in the thresholds necessary to porate the membranes of the secretory granules. We conclude that more sophisticated cell models together with knowledge of accurate dielectric properties are needed to understand the effects of NEPs on intracellular membranes in chromaffin cells, information that will be important for elucidating how NEPs porate organelle membranes in other cell types having a similarly complex cytoplasmic ultrastructure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants FA9550-14-1-0018 and FA9550-14-1-0123 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The authors would like to thank Dr. James Weaver for helpful discussions regarding the cell modeling; Dr. Jihwan Yoon for technical assistance with the exposure setup; Dr. Michael Stacey (Old Dominion University) and Dr. Ahmet Can Sabuncu (Southern Methodist University) for determining the dielectric properties of chromaffin cells; Mojtaba Ahmadiantehrani for gold coating the tungsten electrodes; Robert Terhune for performing SEMCAD X simulations; Eric Evans and Steve Shin for technical help; and Mike Holcomb at Wolf Pack Meats in Reno, NV for providing fresh bovine adrenal glands.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Josette Zaklit & Indira Chatterjee

  2. Department of Pharmacology, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Gale L. Craviso, Normand Leblanc & Lisha Yang

  3. Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23508, USA

    P. Thomas Vernier

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  1. Josette Zaklit
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  2. Gale L. Craviso
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  4. Lisha Yang
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Correspondence to Josette Zaklit.

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Zaklit, J., Craviso, G.L., Leblanc, N. et al. Adrenal Chromaffin Cells Exposed to 5-ns Pulses Require Higher Electric Fields to Porate Intracellular Membranes than the Plasma Membrane: An Experimental and Modeling Study. J Membrane Biol 250, 535–552 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-017-9983-9

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