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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 May 13.
Published in final edited form as: N Engl J Med. 2019 May 23;380(21):2067–2069. doi: 10.1056/NEJMcibr1900051

Figure 1. Optogenetic Neuromodulation of Urinary Tract Function.

Figure 1.

Mickle and colleagues used a closed-loop wireless system with a strain gauge wrapped around the bladder of freely moving rats.1 The strain gauge measures changes in resistance during bladder filling and emptying. When the bladder becomes overactive, a signal is sent to activate a small microscale inorganic light-emitting diode (μ-ILED), which, in turn, activates a light-sensitive archaeal protein, an opsin, to selectively reduce neural activity. This action delivers a corrective signal, thereby restoring normal bladder function.