Effect of high voltage electrical pulses on subcutaneous glioma tumours on rats

• The antitumour effect of applied high voltage exponential pulses was investigated on rats with subcutaneously implanted N32 brain tumours. Superficial tumours on the thigh were produced by the injection of 100 000 N32 glioma cells on Fischer-344 rats. Four weeks after inoculation, a solid tumour has grown to a size of about 1 cm located directly under the skin. Short electric high voltage pulses were given transdermally through stainless steel plate electrodes. Sixteen exponential pulses with initial field strength of 1300-1400 V/cm and a time constant of 1 ms were delivered with a BTX600 device at approximately one pulse per second. The treatment was repeated during 4 consecutive days. Tumour response was studied by measuring the length, width and thickness of the tumour with a slide-calliper and estimating the tumour volume as an ellipsoid. Animals (treated and controls) were sacrificed when the size of the tumour had reached a predetermined value (5 cm3). In the first experiment this occurred after 50±4 days for the treated animals, excluding cured, compared to 40±1.3 for their controls and in the second experiment after 64±24 days excluding cured animals compared to 37.6±3 for the controls. All treated animals showed an initial partial or complete tumour remission within a few days after the end of the 4-day treatment. Two out of ten treated animals were cured with no sign of recurrence after 100 days. Copyright (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.

Nyckelord

Electropermeabilisation

Exponential

Glioma cells

High voltage

Pulses

Rats

Stainless steel electrode

Therapy

Tumour

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