Kinetics of pore disappearance in a cell after electroporation.

The process of pore disappearance after cell electroporation is analysed theoretically. On the basis of the kinetic model, in which the formation and annihilation of a metastable hydrophilic pore are considered as random one-step processes, a distribution function of cell resealing times, Fr(t), is derived. The shape of this function depends on the initial number of pores in a cell, ni. The developed theory is compared with experimental data. Although the shape of experimental relationships depends on the electroporation conditions, they can be described by theoretical curves quite well. Increasing the amplitude of an electric pulse increases the number of pores and/or the rate of their resealing. It was concluded that the disappearance of pores in the cell membrane after electroporation is a random process.