Cellular absorption of electric field energy: influence of molecular properties of the cytoplasm.

Molecular dispersions may significantly alter the frequency dependence of structural polarizations. Consequently, the molecular properties cannot be neglected when the energy absorption is calculated with a subcellular resolution. Our example presents calculations that explain the absorption in single human red blood cells. The molecular properties of the cytoplasm have been derived from literature data on the impedance of Hb suspensions. The resulting cell properties were then compared to own data obtained by single cell dielectric spectroscopy.