PDMS microchannel regenerative peripheral nerve interface

Author

Musick, Katherine M. ; Chew, Daniel J. ; Fawcett, James W. ; Lacour, S.P.

Author_Institution

Centre for Neuroprosthetics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

fYear

2013

fDate

6-8 Nov. 2013

Firstpage

649

Lastpage

652

Abstract

We have fabricated a soft silicone structure to support the regeneration of a sciatic nerve. The device consists of 70 parallel (120 × 110 μm²) channels through which axons extend and then reconnect to the muscles on the other side of the device. Through histology and electrophysiology, we show that axons grow through the device and functionality of the muscle control is restored. Nerve functionality as demonstrated with stimulated electromyography (EMG) recordings is still intact at 9 months after implantation. Future work on this device will include electrodes for recording and stimulating the regenerating nerve.

Keywords

bioMEMS; biological tissues; biomedical electrodes; biomedical materials; electromyography; microchannel flow; microfabrication; patient treatment; silicon; PDMS microchannel; Si; axon growth; electrodes; electrophysiology; histology; implantation; microfabrication; muscle control functionality; regenerative peripheral nerve interface; sciatic nerve regeneration; soft silicone structure; stimulated electromyography recordings; time 9 month; Animals; Electrodes; Electromyography; Implants; Microchannel; Muscles; Nerve fibers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Neural Engineering (NER), 2013 6th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

ISSN

1948-3546

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NER.2013.6696018

Filename

6696018