Comparative assessment of iridium oxide and platinum alloy wires using an in vitro glial scar assay
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Comparative assessment of iridium oxide and platinum alloy wires using an in vitro glial scar assay Evon S. Ereifej & Saida Khan & Golam Newaz & Jinsheng Zhang & Gregory W. Auner & Pamela J. VandeVord
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract The long-term effect of chronically implanted electrodes is the formation of a glial scar. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the biocompatibility of materials before employing them in neural electrode fabrication. Platinum alloy and iridium oxide have been identified as good candidates as neural electrode biomaterials due to their mechanical and electrical properties, however, effect of glial scar formation for these two materials is lacking. In this study, we applied a glial scarring assay to observe the cellular reactivity to platinum alloy and iridium oxide wires in order to assess the biocompatibility based on previously defined characteristics. Through real-time PCR, immunostaining and imaging techniques, we will advance the understanding of the biocompatibility of these materials. Results of this study demonstrate iridium oxide wires exhibited a more E. S. Ereifej : S. Khan : P. J. VandeVord Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA G. Newaz Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA J. Zhang Department of Otolaryngology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA G. W. Auner Department of Biomedical Engineering, Smart Sensor and Integrated Microsystems, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA P. J. VandeVord Research & Development Service, John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, Detroit, MI, USA P. J. VandeVord (*) Department of Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Tech University, 447 ICTAS Bldg, 325 Stanger, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA e-mail: [email protected]
significant reactive response as compared to platinum alloy wires. Cells cultured with platinum alloy wires had less GFAP gene expression, lower average GFAP intensity, and smaller glial scar thickness. Collectively, these results indicated that platinum alloy wires were more biocompatible than the iridium oxide wires. Keywords Iridium . Platinum . Biocompatibility . Neural prosthesis
1 Introduction There has been great advancement in neural prostheses research over the last 35 year (Mian et al. 2005). Currently, over 200,000 devices are implanted into patients (Mian et al. 2005; Gobbels et al. 2010). The majority of these devices are either implanted into the spinal cord or a peripheral nerve. To date, there are limited clinical microelectrodes that are implanted in the brain (Mian et al. 2005). The long-term effect of chronically implanted electrodes is the formation of a glial scar made up of reactive astrocytes and the matrix proteins they generate (Seil and Webster 2008; Polikov et al. 2005). The prolonged excitation of neurons due to the over stimulation of electrode materials has shown to cause damage to the electrode and the neural tissue (Negi et al. 2010a; Cogan et al. 2004; Agnew et al. 1986). Tissue dam
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