Fig. (5).

Life cycle of an electropore. Only water (red) and phospholipid head groups (yellow) are shown. The creation of an electropore starts with the introduction of a water defect inside the lipid bilayer (pore initiation). This engenders a reorganization of the lipids around the defect (pore construction). As long as the electric field is present, this phenomenon expands until the formation of a mature pore (pore maturation). Once the electric field is turned off, pore annihilation begins. At this moment, the pore is quasi-stable (pore destabilization). The size of the pore decreases since water and phospholipid head groups move out of the bilayer interior (pore degradation). The head groups separate again into two distinct layers (pore deconstruction) and water is rapidly removed (pore dissolution) such that the initial structure of the membrane is restored. From [154].