Abstract
Electrochemotherapy is a novel chemotherapeutic strategy to potentiate cytocidal effects of anticancer agents by means of electroporation. In the present study, weexamined the optimal condition of electric impulses (EI) in in vitro study.
In vitro electrochemotherapy was performed by delivering various EI, changing the field intensity, pulse duration, and frequency, to a cell suspension immediately after adding bleomycin (BLM) solution. Cytocidal effects were assessed by MTT assay. In addition, an intracellular concentration of BLM was evaluated by means of bioassay in electreporated and non-electroporated cells.
Cytotoxicity of EI themselves was seen only when the intensity of the electric field was raised up to 1200V/cm. The viability of pulsed cells was significantly decreased as the field intensity was increased. The potential effect of cytotoxicities of these agents was evident when the condition of EI was over 4 pulses of 80 to 100μsec at a field intensity of more than 400V/cm. This phenomenon was most prominent with an increase in field intensity, which was greatly concerned with electric energy. The increase of the intracellular concentration of the drug in pulsed cells seems to be consistent with a pootential anticancer effect.
