A thermodynamic scaling law for electrically perturbed lipid membranes: validation with the steepest-entropy-ascent framework

Abstract

Experimental evidence has demonstrated the potential of transient pulses of electric fields to alter mammalian cell phenotypes. Strategies with these pulsed electric fields (PEFs) have been developed for clinical applications in cancer therapeutics, in-vivo decellularization, and tissue regeneration. Successful implementation of these strategies involves understanding how PEFs impact the cellular structures and, hence, cell behavior. The caveat, however, is that the PEF parameter space comprised of different pulse widths, amplitudes, and the number of pulses is very large, and design of experiments to explore all possible combinations of PEF parameters is prohibitive from a cost and time standpoint. In this study, a scaling law based on the Ising model is introduced to understand the impact of PEFs on the outer cell lipid membrane so that an understanding developed in one PEF pulse regime may be extended to another. Experimental study is used to argue for the scaling model. Next, the validity of this scaling model to predict the behavior of both thermally quenched and electrically perturbed lipid membranes is demonstrated via computational predictions made by the steepest-entropy-ascent quantum thermodynamic (SEAQT) framework. Based on the simulation results, a form of scaled PEF parameters is thus proposed for lipid membrane.