Patel Trishna, Hendren Jamie, Lee Nathan, Mickle Aaron D
Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
HardwareX. 2022 Feb 1;11:e00271. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00271. eCollection 2022 Apr.
Studying the visceral sensory component of peripheral nervous systems can be challenging due to limited options for consistent and controlled stimulation. One method for mechanical stimulation of hollow organs, including the colon and bladder, is controlled distensions mediated by compressed air. For example, distension of the bladder can be used as an assay for bladder nociception. Bladder distension causes a corresponding increase in abdominal electromyography, which increases with distension pressure and is attenuated with analgesics. However, the hardware used to control these distensions are primarily all one-off custom builds, without clear directions on how to build your own. This has made it difficult for these methods to be fully utilized and replicated as not everyone has the access, knowledge, and resources required to build this controller. Here we show an open-source Arduino-based system for controlling a solenoid valve to deliver timed pressure distensions in the experimental model. This device can be controlled by one of two methods through direct TTL pulses from the experimenter's data acquisition software (ex. CED Spike2) or by a graphical user interface, where the user can set the time before, during, and after distension as well as the number of cycles. This system's low cost and relative ease to build will allow more groups to utilize timed pressure distensions in their experiments.
由于在实现持续且可控的刺激方面选择有限，研究外周神经系统的内脏感觉成分具有挑战性。一种用于对包括结肠和膀胱在内的中空器官进行机械刺激的方法是通过压缩空气介导的控制性扩张。例如，膀胱扩张可作为膀胱痛觉感受的一种检测方法。膀胱扩张会导致腹部肌电图相应增加，这种增加随扩张压力而上升，并会因镇痛药而减弱。然而，用于控制这些扩张的硬件主要都是一次性的定制装置，没有关于如何自行制作的明确说明。这使得这些方法难以得到充分利用和复制，因为并非每个人都有制作该控制器所需的途径、知识和资源。在此，我们展示了一种基于开源 Arduino 的系统，用于在实验模型中控制电磁阀以提供定时压力扩张。该装置可以通过两种方法之一进行控制：一种是通过实验者的数据采集软件（如 CED Spike2）发出的直接 TTL 脉冲，另一种是通过图形用户界面，用户可以设置扩张前、扩张期间和扩张后的时间以及循环次数。该系统成本低且相对易于构建，将使更多研究团队能够在实验中利用定时压力扩张。
