Comparative Analysis of Conventional Cell Lysis Techniques to Electrochemical Cell Lysis Using the Liquid Microjunction Surface Sampling Probe.

Cell lysis is a critical step in the analysis of cellular components. Conventional mechanical and chemical methods present trade-offs between throughput, scalability, and sample integrity. Electrochemical lysis (ECL) is a promising alternative that uses low-potential electrolysis (2-5 V) of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) to disrupt membranes while minimizing sample perturbation and solvent consumption. Here, we evaluate ECL against conventional lysis methods (bead milling, sonication, chemical lysis, and freeze-thaw) using combined microbiological, electrochemical, and mass spectrometric (MS) characterization, including ambient MS via the liquid microjunction surface sampling probe (LMJ-SSP) and liquid chromatography-MS/MS (LC-MS/MS). ECL produced lysates with greater replicate reproducibility and biomolecular diversity than conventional methods. Integration of ECL with the LMJ-SSP MS enabled rapid characterization with minimal sample preparation.