Fig. 5: Safety assessment of intravascular implantation and viability in human clinical settings. | Nature Communications

Fig. 5: Safety assessment of intravascular implantation and viability in human clinical settings.

From: Intravascular delivery of an ultraflexible neural electrode array for recordings of cortical spiking activity

Fig. 5

a Postoperative CT images around the estimated penetration site from an example sheep brain, showing the intact brain tissue from three axial planes. The magnified view corresponds to the region in the blue dashed rectangles. Three successive slices spanning 1 mm were shown for each plane. A: anterior, P: posterior, R: right, L: left, S: superior, I: Inferior. Scale bars, 2 cm and 1 cm in the magnified view. b and c, MRI scans (1.5-T, Flair (i), T1 (horizontal and sagittal views, ii and iii)) revealing brain tissue integrity at 7 (b) and 30 (c) days post the surgery. The magnified views correspond to the region in the blue dashed rectangles in (ii). Scale bars, 2 cm and 1 cm in the magnified view. d Fluorescent images of tissue sections at 30 days after acute uFINE-I implantation, showing no detectable tissue damage caused by implantation. GFAP marks astrocyte activation, a sign of immune response, and DAPI stains nuclei. Scale bar, 50 µm. e Fluorescent images showing two tissue sections along the implantation trajectory (indicated by the pink plane in the inset) after 30-day chronic uFINE-I implantation. Magnified views showing the electrode footprints corresponding to the region in the orange dashed rectangles in the zoomed-out images. NeuN marks mature neurons. Scale bars, 200 µm and 50 µm. f Hematoxylin and Eosin (HE) staining of penetration scar, showing healing with spindle cell hyperplasia 30 days after penetration. The magnified view corresponds to the region in the blue dashed rectangle. Scale bars, 200 µm and 50 µm. d–f The experiment was repeated three times, showing similar results.

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