Viability of cancerous cell lines as a function of energy delivered

Electroporation is an elegant technique used for proliferation control in Cancer cells. This budding mode of therapy called electrochemotherapy uses electrical pulses and chemodrugs to trigger cell death in cancerous cells. The efficacy of this technique depends on a variety of factors including electric field intensity, pulse duration and the number of pulses. In this study, Human cervical (ME180), Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (KG1) and Human Promyelocytic leukemia (HL60) cancerous cell lines were subjected to electroporation in the presence of 1μM Bleomycin at 1200 V/cm, 100μs; 450 V/cm, 25ms; and 200 V/cm, 40ms. The energy applied and charge delivered with each pulse are also calculated. The results indicate that with increase in energy delivered, there in increase in cell death. This promises to be a very useful tool in for the treatment of patients suffering from chemo-refractive tumors.