Fig. 4 |. Behavior study and biocompatibility of MorphE on growing nerves.
a, Hindlimb kinematics during walking (left). Stick diagram decompositions of hindlimb movements (middle). Scale bar, 2 cm. Images of toes for rat implanted with MorphE and cuff electrode (right). Scale bar, 1 cm. b, Extensor postural thrust normalized to body weight for rats implanted with MorphE and cuff electrode and sham control from week 0 (before implantation) to week 8; MorphE (n = 7) and cuff electrodes (n = 7) were compared to sham control (n = 8) to calculate P value for week 0 to week 4, n = 4 for week 8; for MorphE versus sham control: week 0, P = 0.71; week 1, P = 0.02; week 2, P = 0.13; week 3, P = 0.01; week 4, P = 0.76; week 8, P = 0.11; for cuff electrode versus sham control: week 0, P = 0.90; week 1, P = 1.25 × 10−5; week 2, P = 9.93 × 10−8; week 3, P = 6.46 × 10−12; week 4, P = 1.85 × 10−6; week 8, P = 1.16 × 10−5. Two-tailed Student’s t-test was used for data analysis, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. c, Reconstructed three-dimensional μCT scans of the sciatic nerve after chronic implantation of MorphE and cuff electrode. Scale bar, 200 μm. d, Cross-sectional slice of sciatic nerve labeled by the inflammatory biomarker ED1 for MorphE, cuff electrodes and sham control. DAPI, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. Three experiments were repeated independently with similar results. Scale bar, 100 μm. e–g, Histogram showing normalized fluorescence intensity of neurofilaments (e), S-100 (f) and ED1 (g) for MorphE, cuff electrodes and sham control. For neurofilament: MorphE, P = 0.49;cuff electrode, P = 8.8 × 10−6; for S-100: MorphE, P = 0.42; cuff electrode, P = 0.0019; for ED1: MorphE, P = 0.58; cuff electrode, P = 0.0027; **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (n = 3, unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t-test). All error bars denote s.d. a.u., arbitrary units.