ABSTRACT
Reversible electroporation or electropermeabilization (EP) is a highly e ective method for nondestructive and transient modi cation of cell membrane permeability by means of a series of electric pulses characterized by high voltage (e.g., 1kV) and short duration (e.g., 100μs) (Orlowski et al. 1988). EP has gained considerable attention over the last decade, largely due to applications in which extracellular molecules that do not cross cell membrane easily, such as hydrophilic molecules, can be introduced into the cells in vastly increased quantities by means of EP. e combined use of EP with chemotherapeutic drugs has been named electrochemotherapy (ECT) (Mir et al. 1991). Over the last decade, numerous studies have been reported, that involve the treatment of experimental and clinical tumors by means of ECT (Sersa 2006, Sersa et al. 2006, Quaglino et al. 2008). e combined e orts of many research groups have recently culminated in the Cliniporator (IGEA, Carpi, Italy), the rst CE-certi ed clinical instrument for EP, and in the Standard Operating Procedures for the use of the method in clinical oncology (Mir et al. 2006). ECT with chemotherapeutics bleomycin and cisplatin is now being used successfully in a steadily increasing number of hospitals and veterinary clinics for the treatment of solid tumors of various etiologies including melanoma skin metastases, head and neck tumors, basal cell carcinomas, and adenocarcinomas in humans (Heller et al. 1999, Marty et al. 2006, Sersa 2006, Cemazar et al. 2008). Recently ECT has been proposed as a treatment modality for skin melanoma metastases (Testori et al. 2009). In another procedure closely related to ECT and named electrogenetherapy (EGT), electric pulses di erent from those used in ECT are used not only to electropermeabilize the cell membranes but also to produce electrophoretic forces, which are both needed to transfer the extracellular genetic material into the cells (Satkauskas et al. 2002, 2005, Kanduser et al. 2009). Due to a more complex situation, the development of procedures for e ective EGT is lagging behind that for ECT, but the potential of EGT for local gene therapy in tissues including muscle, skin, liver, and tumor without the use of viral vectors has already been demonstrated in vivo and in a clinical study (Neumann et al. 1982, Heller and Heller 2006, Cemazar et al. 2006, Prud’homme et al. 2006, Daud et al. 2008).
