Design, characterization and experimental validation of a compact, flexible pulsed power architecture for ex vivo platelet activation

PLoS One. 2017 Jul 26;12(7):e0181214. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181214. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Electric pulses can induce various changes in cell dynamics and properties depending upon pulse parameters; however, pulsed power generators for in vitro and ex vivo applications may have little to no flexibility in changing the pulse duration, rise- and fall-times, or pulse shape. We outline a compact pulsed power architecture that operates from hundreds of nanoseconds (with the potential for modification to tens of nanoseconds) to tens of microseconds by modifying a Marx topology via controlling switch sequences and voltages into each capacitor stage. We demonstrate that this device can deliver pulses to both low conductivity buffers, like standard pulsed power supplies used for electroporation, and higher conductivity solutions, such as blood and platelet rich plasma. We further test the effectiveness of this pulse generator for biomedical applications by successfully activating platelets ex vivo with 400 ns and 600 ns electric pulses. This novel bioelectrics platform may provide researchers with unprecedented flexibility to explore a wide range of pulse parameters that may induce phenomena ranging from intracellular to plasma membrane manipulation.

Publication types

  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bioelectric Energy Sources
  • Calcium / metabolism
  • Calcium / pharmacology
  • Cattle
  • Cell Membrane / drug effects
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism*
  • Electric Conductivity
  • Electroporation / instrumentation*
  • Electroporation / methods*
  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Platelet Activation*
  • Platelet-Rich Plasma / drug effects
  • Platelet-Rich Plasma / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Thrombin / pharmacology
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Thrombin
  • Calcium

Grants and funding

AC, SK, CM, and VBN are employees of GE Global Research. YJ, AST, and ALG are former employees of GE Global Research. While GE funded the work and provided support in the form of salaries for authors [AC, YJ, SK, CM, AST, and VBN], the funders did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.