The illusion of sharp boundaries : unresolved issues in reversible and irreversible electroporation

Miklavčič, Damijan (avtor)

Electroporation has birthed two massive parallel universes of applications: medicine and food processing. Despite operating on the same fundamental physics, these fields fail to crosspollinate, limiting their advancement. The classical “aqueous pore” model and threshold-based definitions fail to explain the highly complex, multiparameter realities of molecular transport, cell death mechanisms, and tissue-level physiological responses. The fields often struggle to translate in vitro findings—where even varying cell lines yield conflicting results—into predictive clinical and industrial outcomes. Upscaling from small animals to humans, as well as from laboratory to industrial scale, often fails due to increasing biological complexity and variability. This translational chasm is exacerbated by a lack of multiscale and multiphysics modeling that couples electric fields with thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and electrochemistry and most of all downstream effects of electroporation like cell death and changes in mass transport. Emerging clinical applications like Pulsed Field Ablation and therapies based on gene delivery represents a perplexing, multiparameter optimization problem that must balance electrical, thermal, and electrochemical constraints. This paper highlights critical deficiencies, explores the sharp boundary between reversible and irreversible electroporation, and calls for better reporting, standardized nomenclature, and interdisciplinary collaboration to elevate electroporation from an empirical to a universally predictive, robust science.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: irreversible electroporation, drug delivery, cardiac ablation, gene delivery, food processing, multiphysics modeling, pulsed field ablation
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FE - Fakulteta za elektrotehniko
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Leto izida: 2027
• Št. strani: 10 str.
• Številčenje: Vol. 173, art.109416
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-186378
• UDK: 602.621:621.31
• ISSN pri članku: 1567-5394
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2026.109416
• COBISS.SI-ID: 287253251
• Datum objave v RUL: 31.08.2026

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: Bioelectrochemistry
• Založnik: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1567-5394
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2502484

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: reverzibilna elektroporacija, ireverzibilna elektroporacija, vnos zdravil, srčna ablacija, vnos genov, predelava hrane, multifizikalno modeliranje, ablacija s pulznim električnim poljem

Projekti

• Financer: ARIS - Javna agencija za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije