Experimental Study of Entropy Production in Cells under Alternating Electric Field

• 来源期刊: 中国物理快报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2012,（8）
• 页码范围: 284-287
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/29/8/088701

摘要

We put forward a new method for measuring the entropy production in the living cell. It involves heating the sample by alternating the electric field and recording the outward heat flow.The entropy production in a normal cell MCF10A and a cancerous cell MDA-MB-231 were measured and compared.The results show that the method is effective for the entropy measurement of a living organism. The scaled electro-induced entropy production rate (SEEP) of MDA-MB-231 monotonically increases with the electric field strength at 5-40 V/cm.While that of MCF10A changes non-monotonically and there exists a peak at 5-30 V/cm.The electro-induced entropy production ratio (EEPR) is smaller than 1 in a large range of field strengths,from 5 to 25 V/cm,which reveals that under 5-25 V/cm electric field exposure,the direction of the entropy flow may be changed from normal tissue to cancerous cells. We present a facile and effective strategy for experimentally investigating the thermodynamic properties of the cell and give a deeper insight into the physical difference between normal and cancerous cells under electric field exposure.