Electrokinetic transport through the nanopores in cell membrane during electroporation

In electroporation, applied electric field creates hydrophilic nanopores in a cell membrane that can serve as a pathway for inserting biological samples to the cell. It is highly desirable to understand the ionic transfer and fluid flow through the nanopores in order to control and improve the cell transfection. Because of submicron dimensions, conventional theories of electrokinetics may lose their applicability in such nanopores. In the current study, the Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations along with modified Navier-Stokes equations and the continuity equation are solved in order to find electric potential, fluid flow, and ionic concentration through the nanopores. The results show that the electric potential, velocity field, and ionic concentration vary with the size of the nanopores and are different through the nanopores located at the front and backside of the cell membrane. However, on a given side of the cell membrane, angular position of nanopores has fewer influences on liquid flow and ionic transfer. By increasing the radius of the nanopores, the averaged velocity and ionic concentration through the nanopores are increased. It is also shown that, in the presence of electric pulse, electrokinetic effects (electroosmosis and electrophoresis) have significant influences on ionic mass transfer through the nanopores, while the effect of diffusion on ionic mass flux is negligible in comparison with electrokinetics. Increasing the radius of the nanopores intensifies the effect of convection (electroosmosis) in comparison with electrophoresis on ionic flux.