Fig. 5: Assessment and modulation of neurogenic bladder dysfunction following spinal cord injury (SCI).

a Schematic of the experimental timeline. Rats underwent sham or SCI surgery on day 0, electrode implantation on day 21, cystostomy on day 28, and urodynamic testing on day 29. Electrical stimulation or sham treatment was applied from days 21 to 28. b Resistance change of the stretchable strain sensor over a 3000-s period. Representative traces showing resistance change (c) and intra-bladder pressure (d), illustrating voiding contractions (VC), non-voiding contractions (NVC), and non-clinically significant contractions (NCSC). e, f Close-up views of sensor resistance and IBP during a complete voiding cycle, with ΔR/R₀ used to quantify contraction amplitude. g, h ROC curves evaluating ΔR/R₀ for distinguishing NCSC and NVC events. i Workflow summarizing electrical stimulation therapy and bladder function evaluation via implantable electrodes. j Image of a freely moving paraplegic rat receiving bladder stimulation via a skull-mounted interface. k Representative IBP traces and group comparisons of l baseline pressure, m peak pressure, n inter-contraction interval, and o NVC frequency across the sham group (n = 6 biologically independent experiments), SCI group (n = 5 biologically independent experiments), SCI + sham stimulation group (n = 5 biologically independent experiments), and SCI + stimulation group (n = 5 biologically independent experiments). Data is presented as mean ± SD. Statistical analysis (in g, h) used the one-sided Mann–Whitney tests. Statistical analysis (in i–o) used the two-sided unpaired t-tests, Welch’s t-tests, or Mann–Whitney tests, as appropriate (see Table S2 for details). ns not significant. Source data are provided as a Source data file.