What Is Electrofusion?

When a cell is placed in a very high electric field, the cell membrane becomes permeable, allowing outside molecules to diffuse into the cell. This phenomenon is called electrofusion, also called electroporation.

Electric fusion

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When the cell is placed in a very high electric field, the cell membrane becomes

When a cell is placed in a very high electric field, the cell membrane becomes permeable, allowing outside molecules to diffuse into the cell. This phenomenon is called electroporation. Using this technology, many substances, including DNA, RNA, proteins, drugs, antibodies, and fluorescent probes can be loaded into cells. As a method of gene transduction, electroporation has been widely used in various cell types, including bacteria, yeast, plant and animal cells; moreover, it can be used as an injection method (called electroinjection), Substance is introduced into living cells.

Compared with other commonly used methods of introducing foreign substances, electroporation has many advantages. First, instead of using glass needles like microinjection, no technical training and expensive equipment are needed, and millions of cells can be injected at once. Second, compared with the use of chemicals, electroporation has almost no biological or chemical side effects. Third, because electroporation is a physical method that is less dependent on cell type, it is widely used. In fact, for most cell types, gene transfer by electroporation is much more efficient than chemical methods.

In addition to making the cell membrane permeable and allowing outside molecules to diffuse into the cytosol, high-intensity electric field pulses can also cause cell fusion, a phenomenon called electrical fusion. However, the cells must be brought into close contact with each other before electric pulse fusion. This electric fusion method is very useful in the production of hybrid plants by protoplast fusion and the fusion of embryonic cells with each other to prepare animal clones, especially in the preparation of hybridoma cells for monoclonal antibodies It is very useful. Several laboratories have demonstrated that using electric fields for electrical fusion is 10 to 100 times more efficient than conventional chemical fusion methods. Recently, electrical fusion of adherent cells has also been used to study the dynamic rearrangement of the skeletal components and organelles of cells during cell fusion. .