Verification of Electroporation Models Using the Potato Tuber as In Vitro Simulation

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) and Irreversible Electroporation are recent non-thermal techniques employed for the treatment of tumors. These therapies are based on the opening of pores in the cell membrane during application of sufficiently high electric fields. Over the past two decades, clinical trials have validated these therapies in humans. Moreover, ECT has been successfully applied in several species in veterinary clinics. As the therapy depends on the electric field distribution, numerical models and in vitro experiments have an important role in better understanding electric field distribution in biological tissues, especially in anatomically and physiologically complex structures. The potato tuber has emerged as an option for testing the effectiveness of the new electrodes. Potatoes present advantages for several reasons: they are compatible with the 3Rs’ concept for animal testing; they are simple to handle; and their electroporated areas become dark after 6–12 h. In this work, we simulated four numerical models from the literature and compared them to in vitro experiments. Our aim was to determine the model that best describes the observable affected area. This is an important point because the models were developed to properly describe tissue variation in electrical conductivity during electroporation, not to determine how electroporation is manifested macroscopically in potato tissue. The area measured with the Miklavčič–Ivorra–Suárez model was in closest agreement to the experiments; however, none of the models exactly represent our in vitro results.