To what extent are the passive electrical parameters of lymphocyte membranes deduced from impedance spectroscopy altered by surface roughness and microvillosity?

Time domain dielectric spectroscopy study of human cells. II. Normal and malignant white blood cells

The dielectric properties of human lymphocyte suspensions were studied by time domain dielectric spectroscopy (TDDS). Nine populations of malignant and normal lymphocytes were investigated. Analysis of the dielectric parameters of cell structural parts were performed in the framework of Maxwell-Wagner mixture formula and the double-shell model of cell. The specific capacitance of the cell membranes was estimated by the Hanai-Asami-Koisumi formula. It was shown that the dielectric permittivity, capacitance and conductivity values of cell membranes are higher for normal lymphocytes than for the malignant ones. The difference of the same parameters for normal B- and T-cells is also discussed.