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Updated: Aug 4, 2026
Fabrication of High Contact-Density, Flat-Interface Nerve Electrodes for Recording and Stimulation Applications
Published on: October 4, 2016
Aligned Bioelectronic Polypyrrole/Collagen Constructs for Peripheral Nerve Interfacing
Ryan P Trueman1, Owein Guillemot-Legris2, Henry T Lancashire3
1UCL Centre for Nerve Engineering, University College London, London WC1N 1AX, UK; Department of Pharmacology, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
Abstract:
Electrical stimulation has shown promise in clinical studies to treat nerve injuries. This work is aimed to create an aligned bioelectronic construct that can be used to bridge a nerve gap, directly interfacing with the damaged nerve tissue to provide growth support. The conductive three-dimensional bioelectronic scaffolds described herein are composite materials, comprised of conductive polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles embedded in an aligned collagen hydrogel. The bioelectronic constructs are seeded with dorsal root ganglion derived primary rat neurons and electrically stimulated in vitro. The PPy loaded constructs support a 1.7-fold increase in neurite length in comparison to control collagen constructs. Furthermore, upon electrical stimulation of the PPy-collagen construct, a 1.8-fold increase in neurite length is shown. This work illustrates the potential of bioelectronic constructs in neural tissue engineering and lays the groundwork for the development of novel bioelectronic materials for neural interfacing applications.
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