Nanotubes for neurosurgeons
How to connect nerve tissue using carbon nanotubes
Scientists from the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) and the University of Trieste (Italy), led by Professors Laura Ballerini and Maurizio Prato, managed to connect nerve tissue using an artificial material consisting of carbon nanotubes. This achievement is announced by the press release of SISSA A “bridge" of carbon between nerve tissues.
The material in question was originally developed at the University of Rome Tor Vergata for the purification of seawater from pollution by hydrocarbons (i.e. petroleum products). Under a microscope, it looks like a tangle of tubes intertwined with each other. Prato, however, saw in this material the potential for integration into the nervous tissue and decided to test it in practice.
In the first series of experiments, scientists cultured two sections of the spinal cord in a test tube, separated by a space of 300 micrometers. If there were no "scaffolding" between them, nerve fibers began to grow from each site randomly, in all directions at once, and did not always lead to the second site. If there was the same porous material between them (3D carbon nanotube frame, 3D CNF), nerve fibers began to sprout through its "tubes", filling the entire structure and connecting the nerve tissue together.
Fluorescent micrography from an article in Science Advances – VM.
At the same time, spontaneous nervous activity in both sites correlated, and when an electrical signal was applied to one, the activity of the second increased. This indicated that there was a functional connection between them – but only if there was a connecting "bridge" of nanotubes.
In the second series of experiments, pieces of porous nanomaterial were implanted directly into the brains of living healthy laboratory mice. There they took root well, with the formation of a minimum of scars, and the rodents continued to feel normal for four weeks of observation.
According to Professor Ballerini, the results obtained open up broad prospects for the use of nanomaterial in neurosurgery. "These materials can be useful for implanting electrodes used in the treatment of motor disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, because they take root well in [nervous] tissue, while other implants currently used are less effective, due to scarring. We hope that this will inspire other research teams to interdisciplinary research, so that more such works appear," he said.
Article by Usmani et al. 3D meshes of carbon nanotubes guide functional reconnection of segregated spinal explants published in open access in the journal Science Advances – VM.
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21.07.2016