Electrical charging of lipid membranes causes electroporation with sharp membrane
conductance increases. Several recent observations, especially at very high field strength,
are not compatible with the simple electroporation picture. Here we present several relevant
experiments on cell electrical responses to very high external voltages. We hypothesize that,
not only are aqueous pores created within the lipid membranes, but that nanoscale
membrane fragmentation occurs, possibly with micelle formation. This effect would produce …