Permeability of membrane of Babesia canis infected erythrocytes--influence of an external electric field.

The erythrocytes infection by a parasite (Babesia canis) induced a modification of the biological membrane which was studied using the effect of electric pulses of short duration. This process induces the formation of pores and during the opening hemoglobin and other cytoplasmic proteins diffuse out of the cells and are recovered in the external medium. The rate of molecular permeation across the electrically perforated membranes depends on several factors: electric-field strength, pulses number, pulse duration, temperature and cellular concentration. Even for low parasitemia, differences in the effect of these parameters were observed between infected and non-infected erythrocytes.