Regalia Giulia, Biffi Emilia, Ferrigno Giancarlo, Pedrocchi Alessandra
Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, Electronics, Information and Bioengineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, Electronics, Information and Bioengineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy ; Bioengineering Laboratory, Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Italy.
Comput Intell Neurosci. 2015;2015:172396. doi: 10.1155/2015/172396. Epub 2015 Apr 21.
The collection of good quality extracellular neuronal spikes from neuronal cultures coupled to Microelectrode Arrays (MEAs) is a binding requirement to gather reliable data. Due to physical constraints, low power requirement, or the need of customizability, commercial recording platforms are not fully adequate for the development of experimental setups integrating MEA technology with other equipment needed to perform experiments under climate controlled conditions, like environmental chambers or cell culture incubators. To address this issue, we developed a custom MEA interfacing system featuring low noise, low power, and the capability to be readily integrated inside an incubator-like environment. Two stages, a preamplifier and a filter amplifier, were designed, implemented on printed circuit boards, and tested. The system is characterized by a low input-referred noise (<1 μV RMS), a high channel separation (>70 dB), and signal-to-noise ratio values of neuronal recordings comparable to those obtained with the benchmark commercial MEA system. In addition, the system was successfully integrated with an environmental MEA chamber, without harming cell cultures during experiments and without being damaged by the high humidity level. The devised system is of practical value in the development of in vitro platforms to study temporally extended neuronal network dynamics by means of MEAs.
从与微电极阵列（MEA）耦合的神经元培养物中收集高质量的细胞外神经元尖峰信号是获取可靠数据的关键要求。由于物理限制、低功耗需求或定制需求，商业记录平台对于将MEA技术与在气候控制条件下进行实验所需的其他设备（如环境箱或细胞培养箱）集成的实验装置开发并不完全适用。为了解决这个问题，我们开发了一种定制的MEA接口系统，该系统具有低噪声、低功耗以及能够轻松集成到类似培养箱环境中的能力。设计并在印刷电路板上实现了两个阶段，即前置放大器和滤波放大器，并进行了测试。该系统的特点是低输入参考噪声（<1 μV RMS）、高通道隔离度（>70 dB），并且神经元记录的信噪比与使用基准商业MEA系统获得的值相当。此外，该系统已成功与环境MEA室集成，在实验过程中不会损害细胞培养物，也不会因高湿度水平而受损。所设计的系统在开发通过MEA研究时间扩展神经元网络动力学的体外平台方面具有实际价值。
