ABSTRACT
Corresponding to the large variety of applications, a similarly large assortment of systems exists to generate and provide the required stimulus. Exposures with the aim of charging cellular membranes require high electric elds of some tens to hundreds of volts per meter for short durations that are, at most, on the order of milliseconds, but usually much shorter (Puc et al., 2004). Under these conditions, membranes can become temporarily permeable to large molecules (Weaver, 1993). With even shorter pulses-in the nanosecond range, and higher electric elds-on the order of megavolts per meter, subcellular membranes are a ected and charged in a fashion similar to the plasma membrane (Schoenbach et al., 2004). As a result, transmembrane voltages across organelle membranes can likewise reach critical values (Kotnik and Miklavčič, 2006), which lead to conformational changes, such as the formation of pores (Gowrishankar et al., 2006). In addition, functional molecules embedded in membranes are exposed to high potential di erences and can be expected to trigger certain responses. A prominent example of a subsequent subcellular e ect is the induction of apoptosis, promising new possibilities for cancer therapies (Beebe et al., 2003).
