We put forward a new method for measuring the entropy production in the living cell.It involves heating the sample by alternating the electric field and recording the outward heat flow.The entropy production in a normal cell MCF10A and a cancerous cell MDA-MB-231 were measured and compared.The results show that the method is effective for the entropy measurement of a living organism.The scaled electro-induced entropy production rate(SEEP)of MDA-MB-231 monotonically increases with the electric field strength at 5–40 V/cm.While that of MCF10A changes non-monotonically and there exists a peak at 5–30 V/cm.The electro-induced entropy production ratio(EEPR)is smaller than 1 in a large range of field strengths,from 5 to 25 V/cm,which reveals that under 5–25 V/cm electric field exposure,the direction of the entropy flow may be changed from normal tissue to cancerous cells.We present a facile and effective strategy for experimentally investigating the thermodynamic properties of the cell and give a deeper insight into the physical difference between normal and cancerous cells under electric field exposure.
