Modeling of Joule heating in tissues induced by high- and low-voltage pulse combinations for gene electrotransfer

Gene electrotransfer is a promising technique for safe and efficient gene therapy. It relies on locally delivered electric pulses to transfer previously injected foreign DNA into the cell. Applied pulses induce electric field in tissue (electroporation) and concomitant heat generation due to Joule effect. In our study we used finite element method to calculate electric field and temperature distribution during typical electrotransfer pulsing protocol (i.e. combination of 100 microsecond high-voltage pulse and 400 millisecond low-voltage pulse with pulse lag time of 1 second) in isotropic tissue (e.g. liver) and anisotropic tissue (e.g. skeletal muscle). For parallel plate electrodes results show negligible temperature rise in tissue bulk due to high voltage pulse and up to a few °C rise due to the low-voltage 400 ms-long pulse, depending on tissue conductivity.