M. M. SHAWKI, M.A. ELBLBESY, THANAA E. SHALABY, M. KOTB, S. YOUSSEF
Bio-Medical Physics Department, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Egypt
Abstract. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a tumor therapeutic method, which facilitates intracellular delivery of poorly-permeable cytotoxic drugs into the cancerous cells, by this way the cancer tissue will be killed without any side effects on the normal cells. Low voltage ECT and direct current (DC) ECT are two electric set-ups for ECT which differ in the electric fields conditions that are used to permeabilize the cancer tissue. The electric field conditions are the major factor in this process. So the aim of this work is to optimize the electric field strengths for these two techniques in combination with bleomycin (BLM) as a cytotoxic drug for the treatment of Ehrlich tumor. Low voltages range of electric field strengths from 3.6 V/cm – 71 V/cm were examined in low voltage ECT, while the range of current densities of 0.15 mA/cm2 – 5.13 mA/cm2 were examined for DC ECT, combined with BLM as a cytotoxic drug on mice bearing Ehrlich tumor. The results indicated that the best electric field intensity for low voltage ECT technique is 3.6 V/cm while the best current density for DC technique is 0.15 mA/cm2.
Key words: Electrochemotherapy, electric field optimization, bleomycin.
Corresponding author’s e-mail: mamdouh971@hotmail.com
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