THE RESTING POTENTIAL IN RELATION TO THE EQUIVALENT COMPLEX PERMITTIVITY OF A SPHERICAL CELL-SUSPENSION

The resting potential in relation to the dielectric behaviour of a suspension of biological cells has been investigated. For this purpose a model of conducting spherical particles surrounded by low-conducting shells with surface charge densities has been considered. A general expression was derived for both alpha and beta dispersions, which reduces in the corresponding limiting cases to those of Garcia and co-workers, Pauly and Schwan and Schwarz. The resting potential value is shown to determine alpha dispersion, while having a negligible effect on beta dispersion. The model emphasizes the possibility of obtaining the resting potential through alpha and beta dispersion experiments on synchronized spherical cell suspensions.