An electromechanical effect on cell membranes

While the interior of a cell is a complex collection of various macromolecules, under the influence of an electric field, in at least one critical way, the intracellular material can be represented as a dielectric with an effective resistivity and dielectric constant. So, the cell has the equivalent of an electrical relaxation time constant and that time constant is different from that of the extracellular or intracellular medium. Analysis shows that the difference in time constants yields a net mechanical force on the cell membrane under the influence of an appropriate electrical pulse. When the force is large enough it can destroy the mechanical integrity of the cell providing access to the interior. In addition to modeling the process, the experimental data show visual evidence of cell lysing and chemical evidence that the intracellular material is released.