R&D Digest
New Coating Gels
with Electrical
Stimulation Implants
An Ohio State University (
Columbus) researcher is designing a hydrogel coating to enhance the longevity
of electrical stimulation implants. The
coating promotes the integration of
nerve tissue with implant electrodes,
which could improve the implant’s performance due to better connectivity.
The material has been used for
microsphere drug release and to make
hydrogel tissue mimetics, but not as a
prosthesis coating, according to Jessica
Winter, assistant professor of chemical
and biomolecular engineering at Ohio
State. Her team has also been working
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with different hydrogel materials for
antiinflammatory applications but not
with neurotropins, proteins that promote neuron survival.
“We’re working on trying to make
brain mimetics—materials that look
and feel like brain to a surrounding
tissue—that we could use as coatings
on neural electrodes,” says Winter. One
of the issues surrounding neuroelec-trode implants is the body’s immune
response following implantation.
A glial capsule
can surround the
device, causing
the neurons very
close to it to die.
Being able to prevent neural death
would enhance
the function of Jessica Winter hopes
those devices. to make materials
Winter is spe- that look and feel
cifically looking like brain to sur-
at the field of rounding tissue.
deep-brain stimulation, because it’s one of the most
successful areas in which brain electrodes are used. Simply applying the
coatings to current deep-brain stimulation electrodes could improve their
performance.
The hydrogels used in the coating are
crosslinked polymers that are hydrophilic but not water-soluble. “They’re
about 90–99% water. The particular
polymers that we’re using are PEG
[polyethylene glycol] hydroxy acids,”
says Winter. “That includes lactic acids,
glycolic acid, and caprolactone.”
The researchers regulate the thickness of the coating by drop casting it
onto the devices. Its thickness, which is
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controlled by surface tension, measures
several hundred μm. They also patterned the coating to improve its thickness. Although most of the coatings
have been 30–40 μm thick, Winter says
they can be made thinner if necessary.
Winter’s team recently presented their
research, which is funded by Ohio State,
at an American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. —MF ■
