Shmoel Nava, Rabieh Noha, Ojovan Silviya M, Erez Hadas, Maydan Eilon, Spira Micha E
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science, Department of Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel.
The Harvey M. Kruger Family Center for Nanoscience, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 3;6:27110. doi: 10.1038/srep27110.
Substrate integrated planar microelectrode arrays is the "gold standard" method for millisecond-resolution, long-term, large-scale, cell-noninvasive electrophysiological recordings from mammalian neuronal networks. Nevertheless, these devices suffer from drawbacks that are solved by spike-detecting, spike-sorting and signal-averaging techniques which rely on estimated parameters that require user supervision to correct errors, merge clusters and remove outliers. Here we show that primary rat hippocampal neurons grown on micrometer sized gold mushroom-shaped microelectrodes (gMμE) functionalized simply by poly-ethylene-imine/laminin undergo self-assembly processes to form loose patch-like hybrid structures. More than 90% of the hybrids formed in this way record monophasic positive action potentials (APs). Of these, 34.5% record APs with amplitudes above 300 μV and up to 5,085 μV. This self-assembled neuron-gMμE configuration improves the recording quality as compared to planar MEA. This study characterizes and analyzes the electrophysiological signaling repertoire generated by the neurons-gMμE configuration, and discusses prospects to further improve the technology.
衬底集成平面微电极阵列是用于对哺乳动物神经网络进行毫秒级分辨率、长期、大规模、细胞无创电生理记录的“金标准”方法。然而，这些设备存在一些缺点，可通过依赖估计参数的尖峰检测、尖峰分类和信号平均技术来解决，而这些参数需要用户监督以纠正错误、合并簇和去除异常值。在此，我们展示了在仅通过聚乙烯亚胺/层粘连蛋白功能化的微米级金蘑菇形微电极（gMμE）上生长的原代大鼠海马神经元会经历自组装过程，形成松散的斑块状混合结构。以这种方式形成的超过90%的混合结构记录到单相正向动作电位（APs）。其中，34.5%记录到幅度高于300μV且高达5085μV的动作电位。与平面微电极阵列相比，这种自组装的神经元 - gMμE配置提高了记录质量。本研究对神经元 - gMμE配置产生的电生理信号库进行了表征和分析，并讨论了进一步改进该技术的前景。
