Title :
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
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;
Conference_Titel :
Neural Engineering (NER), 2013 6th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
DOI :
10.1109/NER.2013.6696018
