| Description |
Implanted biomedical devices play an important role in the treatment of central nervous system diseases and disorders, but are also subject to a foreign body response which has the potential to affect device function. For example, the recordings obtained from the cerebral cortex using penetrating microelectrode arrays have been shown to be sufficient in limited clinical trials to control computers or external devices in the field of neuroprosthetics, but such recordings are largely inconsistent in chronic applications. Following implantation, a local area of inflammation develops surrounding the implant, which consists of activated microglia/macrophages, astrocyte hypertrophy, and neuronal loss, and which appears to last for the lifetime of the implant. The focus of this dissertation was to investigate the local tissue response in rat cerebral cortex adjacent to microwires, silicon microelectrodes with different surface chemistries, and microelectrode designs with decreased surface area available for inflammatory cell attachment. |
