Prototype chemical synapse chip for spatially patterned neurotransmitter stimulation of the retina ex vivo

作     者：Corey M.Rountree Ashwin Raghunathan John B.Troy Laxman Saggere 

作者机构：Department of Mechanical and Industrial EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoChicagoIL 60607USA Department of Biomedical EngineeringNorthwestern UniversityEvanstonIL 60208USA 

出 版 物：《Microsystems & Nanoengineering》 (微系统与纳米工程（英文）)

年 卷 期：2017年第3卷第1期

页      面：59-70页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：The work presented in the paper was supported by the National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation(NSF-EFRI)program grant number 0938072 

主　　题：artificial vision neurotransmitter stimulation photoreceptor degeneration retina synapse chip visual prosthesis 

摘      要：Biomimetic stimulation of the retina with neurotransmitters,the natural agents of communication at chemical synapses,could be more effective than electrical stimulation for treating blindness from photoreceptor degenerative *** studies have demonstrated the feasibility of neurotransmitter stimulation by injecting glutamate,a primary retinal neurotransmitter,into the retina at isolated single ***,we demonstrate spatially patterned multisite stimulation of the retina with glutamate,offering the first experimental evidence for applicability of this strategy for translating visual patterns into afferent neural *** accomplish pattern stimulation,we fabricated a special microfluidic device comprising an array of independently addressable microports connected to tiny on-chip glutamate reservoirs via *** device prefilled with glutamate was interfaced with explanted rat retinas placed over a multielectrode array(MEA)with the retinal ganglion cells(RGC)contacting the electrodes and photoreceptor surface contacting the *** independently and simultaneously activating a subset of the microports with modulated pressure pulses,small boluses of glutamate were convectively injected at multiple sites in alphabet patterns over the photoreceptor *** found that the glutamate-driven RGC responses recorded through the MEA system were robust and spatially laid out in patterns strongly resembling the injection *** stimulations were also highly localized with spatial resolutions comparable to or better than electrical retinal *** findings suggest that surface stimulation of the retina with neurotransmitters in pixelated patterns of visual images is feasible and an artificial chemical synapse chip based on this approach could potentially circumvent the limitations of electrical retinal prostheses.