Cylindrical Cell Membranes in Uniform Applied Electric Fields: Validation of a Transport Lattice Method
DA Stewart Jr., TR Gowrishankar, KC Smith, JC Weaver
IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.,
52(10): 1643-1653 Oct 2005
The frequency and time domain transmembrane voltage responses of
a cylindrical cell in an external electric field are calculated
using a transport lattice, which allows solution of a variety of
biologically relevant transport problems with complex cell geometry
and field interactions. Here we demonstrate the method for a
cylindrical membrane geometry and compare results with known
analytical solutions. Results of transport lattice simulations on
a Cartesian lattice are found to have discrepancies with the
analytical solutions due to the limited volume of the system model
and approximations for the local membrane model on the Cartesian
lattice. Better agreement is attained when using a triangular mesh
to represent the geometry rather than a Cartesian lattice. The
transport lattice method can be readily extended to more sophisticated
cell, organelle, and tissue configurations. Local membrane models
within a system lattice can also include nonlinear responses such
as electroporation and ion-channel gating.
