Nerves by measure
Scientists have developed a technology for printing personalized neuroprostheses on a 3D bioprinter
St. Petersburg State University
Researchers from St. Petersburg State University have developed a 3D printing technology for NeuroPrint soft neuroprostheses, which in the future can literally put a person on his feet after a spinal cord injury. The new development has already shown its effectiveness in studies on mammals and danio-rerio fish.
Article by Afanasenkau et al. Rapid prototyping of soft bioelectronic implants for use as neuromuscular interfaces is published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
According to the World Health Organization, more than a billion people, that is, about 15% of the world's population, have various forms of disability. In addition, up to half a million people annually receive spinal cord injuries, which are often accompanied by loss of sensitivity and the ability to walk, as well as disorders of the internal organs. To find ways to restore people with disabilities to health, researchers are developing invasive neuroprostheses that can conduct an electrical signal from the brain to the spinal cord and restore lost functions.
One of the main problems faced by doctors and scientists is the adjustment of neuroprostheses to the surrounding nerve tissues of a person. Despite the biocompatible elastic materials, it is not always possible to quickly adapt the device to the anatomical and age characteristics of the patient. The solution to this problem was proposed by a team of scientists led by Professor Pavel Musienko from the Institute of Translational Biomedicine of St. Petersburg State University and Professor Ivan Minev from University of Sheffield (Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield). They have developed a new 3D printing technology that allows you to quickly manufacture individual neuroimplants for the restoration and monitoring of motor functions and functions of internal organs with lesions of the nervous system.
Such a personalized approach has become possible thanks to NeuroPrint hybrid 3D printing technologies. First, the geometry of the future neuroimplant is created in the printer from silicone, which also serves as an insulating material. Then microparticles of platinum or another electrically conductive element of the implant are applied to the base. After that, the surface is activated using cold plasma. Moreover, the number and configuration of electrodes in the neuroimplant can be changed by obtaining devices for implantation in the tissues of the spinal cord, brain or muscles. The average production time from the creation of the project to the receipt of the prototype can be as little as 24 hours.
Thanks to this technology, the process of creating neuroimplants can significantly accelerate and become cheaper. Given the compactness of the equipment and the versatility of the approach, it cannot be excluded that in the future it will be possible to manufacture individual neuroimplants for a particular patient right in the hospital, fully following the principles of personalized medicine and reducing the cost and delivery time as much as possible.
Neuroscientists have already used NeuroPrint technology to conduct research on various model objects — mammals and danio-rerio fish. They were able to demonstrate that the new neuroimplants have a high level of biointegration and functional stability, and are also not inferior to their counterparts in working with the restoration of motor functions of the limbs and control of bladder functions. In addition, scientists were able to print soft implants that are similar in shape and mechanical characteristics to the outer connective tissue membrane of the brain. This is an important achievement, since many scientific experiments cannot be carried out due to too rigid neural implants that are not suitable for soft structures of nervous tissue, and this also limits their use in clinical practice.
Application of NeuroPrint hybrid 3D printing technology. You can see the process of making an artificial nerve and its result here.
"We tested the development in experiments on freely moving rats for chronic leads of electrocortical signals of the cerebral cortex — this is a necessary element of the neurocomputer interface," Pavel Musienko said. — And in experiments on paralyzed animals, electrical stimulation of neural networks effectively restored locomotor function. Thus, NeuroPrint technology opens up new opportunities both for fundamental research of the central nervous system and for neuroprosthetics in diseases and injuries."
The study was attended by scientists from St. Petersburg State University, the Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Granov Russian Scientific Center for Radiology and Surgical Technologies, the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Phthisiopulmonology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Ural Federal University, Dresden Technical University (Germany) and University of Sheffield (UK).
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru