Foreign Body Response to Intracortical Microelectrodes Is Not Altered with Dip-Coating of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG)

Foreign Body Response to Intracortical Microelectrodes Is Not Altered with Dip-Coating of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG)

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Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a frequently used polymer for neural implants due to its biocompatible property.As a follow-up to our recent study that used PEG for stiffening flexible neural probes, we have evaluated the biological implications of using devices dip-coated with PEG for chronic neural implants.Mice (wild-type and CX3CR1-GFP) received bilateral implants elbeco adu ripstop pants within the sensorimotor cortex, one hemisphere with a PEG-coated probe and the other with a non-coated probe for 4 weeks.Quantitative analyses were performed using biomarkers for activated microglia/macrophages, astrocytes, blood-brain barrier leakage, and neuronal nuclei to determine the degree of foreign body response (FBR) resulting from the implanted microelectrodes.

Despite its well-known acute anti-biofouling property, we observed that PEG-coated devices caused no significantly different FBR compared to non-coated controls at 4 weeks.A repetition using CX3CR1-GFP mice cohort showed similar results.Our histological findings suggest that there is no significant impact of acute delivery of PEG on the FBR in the long-term, and that temporary increase in the device footprint due to the coating of PEG also does not have a significant impact.Large variability seen within the same treatment group quest fryer also implies that avoiding large superficial vasculature during implantation is not sufficient to minimize inter-animal variability.