Development of Adaptive Resistance to Electric Pulsed Field Treatment in CHO Cell Line in Vitro

Pulsed electric field treatment has increased over the last few decades with successful translation from in vitro studies into different medical treatments like electrochemotherapy, irreversible electroporation for tumor and cardiac tissue ablation and gene electrotransfer for gene therapy and DNA vaccination. Pulsed electric field treatments are efficient but localized often requiring repeated applications to obtain results due to partial response and recurrence of disease. While these treatment times are several orders of magnitude lower than conventional biochemical treatment, it has been recently suggested that cells may become resistant to electroporation in repetitive treatments. In our study, we evaluate this possibility of developing adaptive resistance in cells exposed to pulsed electric field treatment over successive lifetimes. Mammalian cells were exposed to electroporation pulses for 30 generations. Every 5 generation was analyzed by determining permeabilization and survival curve. No statistical difference between cells in control and cells exposed to pulsed electric field treatment was observed. We offer evidence that electroporation does not affect cells in a way that they would become less susceptible to pulsed electric field treatment. Our findings indicate pulsed electric field treatment can be used in repeated treatments with each treatment having equal efficiency to the initial treatment.