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Atkinson EW, Kuliasha CA, Kasper M, Furniturewalla A, Lim AS, Jiracek-Sapieha L, Brake A, Gormaley A, Rivera-Llabres V, Singh I, Spearman B, Rinaldi-Ramos CM, Schmidt CE, Judy JW, Otto KJ. Examining the in vivo functionality of the Magnetically Aligned Regenerative Tissue-Engineered Electronic Nerve Interface (MARTEENI). J Neural Eng 2022; 19. [PMID: 35998559 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac8bfe] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Although neural-enabled prostheses have been used to restore some lost functionality in clinical trials, they have faced difficulty in achieving high degree of freedom, natural use compared to healthy limbs. This study investigated the in vivo functionality of a flexible and scalable regenerative peripheral-nerve interface suspended within a microchannel-embedded, tissue-engineered hydrogel (the Magnetically Aligned Regenerative Tissue-Engineered Electronic Nerve Interface, MARTEENI) as a potential approach to improving current issues in peripheral nerve interfaces. APPROACH Assembled MARTEENI devices were implanted in the gaps of severed sciatic nerves in Lewis rats. Both acute and chronic electrophysiology were recorded, and channel-isolated activity was examined. In terminal experiments, evoked activity during paw compression and stimulus response curves generated from proximal nerve stimulation were examined. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed to assess the complex impedance of recording sites during chronic data collection. Features of the foreign-body response in non-functional implants were examined using immunohistological methods. MAIN RESULTS Channel-isolated activity was observed in acute, chronic, and terminal experiments and showed a typically biphasic morphology with peak-to-peak amplitudes varying between 50 to 500 µV. For chronic experiments, electrophysiology was observed for 77 days post-implant. Within the templated hydrogel, regenerating axons formed minifascicles that varied in both size and axon count and were also found to surround device threads. No axons were found to penetrate the foreign-body response. Together these results suggest the MARTEENI is a promising approach for interfacing with peripheral nerves. SIGNIFICANCE Findings demonstrate a high likelihood that observed electrophysiological activity recorded from implanted MARTEENIs originated from neural tissue. The variation in minifascicle size seen histologically suggests that amplitude distributions observed in functional MARTEENIs may be due to a combination of individual axon and mini-compound action potentials. This study provided an assessment of a functional MARTEENI in an in vivo animal model for the first time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Atkinson
- College of Medicine, University of Florida, 1064 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Cary A Kuliasha
- Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, 968 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Mary Kasper
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1275 Center Drive, P.O. Box 116131, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Abbas Furniturewalla
- Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, 968 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Alexander S Lim
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1275 Center Dr., P.O. Box 117200, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Ladan Jiracek-Sapieha
- Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, 968 Center Dr., Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Alexis Brake
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1064 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Anne Gormaley
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1064 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Victor Rivera-Llabres
- Chemistry, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117200, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Ishita Singh
- Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, 1030 Center Drive, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Benjamin Spearman
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1064 Center Dr., New Engineering Building, Gainesville, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
| | - Carlos M Rinaldi-Ramos
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1275 Center Dr, Gainesville, Florida, 32610, UNITED STATES
| | - Christine E Schmidt
- Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Florida, P.O. Box 116131, Gainesville , Florida, 32611, UNITED STATES
| | - Jack W Judy
- NIMET, University of Florida Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, 1041 Center Dr, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-6550, UNITED STATES
| | - Kevin J Otto
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1064 Center Dr., Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7011, UNITED STATES
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Furniturewalla A, Chan M, Sui J, Ahuja K, Javanmard M. Fully integrated wearable impedance cytometry platform on flexible circuit board with online smartphone readout. Microsyst Nanoeng 2018; 4:20. [PMID: 31057908 PMCID: PMC6220260 DOI: 10.1038/s41378-018-0019-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2017] [Revised: 04/27/2018] [Accepted: 05/09/2018] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
We present a wearable microfluidic impedance cytometer implemented on a flexible circuit wristband with on-line smartphone readout for portable biomarker counting and analysis. The platform contains a standard polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channel integrated on a wristband, and the circuitry on the wristband is composed of a custom analog lock-in amplification system, a microcontroller with an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a Bluetooth module wirelessly paired with a smartphone. The lock-in amplification (LIA) system is implemented with a novel architecture which consists of the lock-in amplifier followed by a high-pass filter stage with DC offset subtraction, and a post-subtraction high gain stage enabling detection of particles as small as 2.8 μm using the 8-bit ADC. The Android smartphone application was used to initiate the system and for offline data-plotting and peak counting, and supports online data readout, analysis, and file management. The data is exportable to researchers and medical professionals for in-depth analysis and remote health monitoring. The system, including the microfluidic sensor, microcontroller, and Bluetooth module all fit on the wristband with a footprint of less than 80 cm2. We demonstrate the ability of the system to obtain generalized blood cell counts; however the system can be applied to a wide variety of biomarkers by interchanging the standard microfluidic channel with microfluidic channels designed for biomarker isolation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abbas Furniturewalla
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA
| | - Matthew Chan
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA
| | - Jianye Sui
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA
| | - Karan Ahuja
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA
| | - Mehdi Javanmard
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA
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