Search

Inflammation is a serious symptom of tendon rupture, that leads to peritendinous adhesion and damages the recovery of motor function. Although it is commonly treated using medical therapy, side effects occur in the cardiovascular and genitourinary systems. Electrical stimulation (ES) is a novel alternative to neural modulation. However, its inflammatory inhibitory effect around the tendon has rarely been investigated. Here, an ultraflexible cuff electrode with a thickness of only 3.3 µm is constructed to conformally wrap around the sympathetic chain ganglia for both stimulation and recording. The superior pliancy of the electrode causes less damage to the surrounding tissues and enhances the efficiency of stimulation and recording. ES reduces inflammation‐related factors of IL‐6 and IL‐1β by 51.6% and 19.8%, respectively, and increases the sympathetic nerve neurotransmitter of norepinephrine (NE) by almost an order of magnitude in the ruptured tendon. Sympathetic recordings have also demonstrated that more neural activity is evoked after ES. To the best of the knowledge, this study is the first to verify that the ES of the sympathetic nerve can inhibit inflammation around the tendon, bringing new inspiration for the tendon rupture treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsed field ablation is a novel approach to treating 33.5 million patients with atrial fibrillation and offers a tissue‐specific advantage over conventional radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation. However, for complex structural targets in the heart, current electrodes often damage non‐target areas due to inaccurate ablation and have to employ electrical pulses with amplitudes of several kilovolts. Herein, materials and designs of a catheter‐integrated microelectrode and sensors that can be used for high‐precision and low‐voltage pulsed field ablation through minimally invasive operation on a large animal model, is reported. The device with a new electrode configuration supports point‐by‐point ablation with a width of 3.8 mm (≈1/10 that of a typical ablation electrode) for individual lesions at the voltage of 300 V (an order of magnitude reduction compared to the current state‐of‐the‐art). More impressively, the integrated catheter allows for pulsed field ablation on the large animal heart through minimally invasive surgery and blocks the electrical conduction pathway on the heart, which is the key to treating atrial fibrillation. This catheter‐integrated device will enhance the efficiency and safety of pulsed field ablation, especially for complex cardiac structures, thus facilitating its move to the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The input-output function of neural networks is complicated due to the huge number of neurons and synapses, and some high-density implantable electrophysiology recording tools with a plane structure have been developed for neural circuit studies in recent years. However, traditional plane probes are limited by the record-only function and inability to monitor multiple-brain regions simultaneously, and the complete cognition of neural networks still has a long way away. Herein, we develop a three-dimensional (3D) high-density drivable optrode array for multiple-brain recording and precise optical stimulation simultaneously. The optrode array contains four-layer probes with 1024 microelectrodes and two thinned optical fibers assembled into a 3D-printed drivable module. The recording performance of microelectrodes is optimized by electrochemical modification, and precise implantation depth control of drivable optrodes is verified in agar. Moreover, in vivo experiments indicate neural activities from CA1 and dentate gyrus regions are monitored, and a tracking of the neuron firing for 2 weeks is achieved. The suppression of neuron firing by blue light has been realized through high-density optrodes during optogenetics experiments. With the feature of large-scale recording, optoelectronic integration, and 3D assembly, the high-density drivable optrode array possesses an important value in the research of brain diseases and neural networks.