Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yong, Jiawey
• Needham, Karina
• Brown, William G. A.
• Nayagam, Bryony A.
• McArthur, Sally L.
• Yu, Aimin
• Stoddart, Paul R.

Titel

Gold-Nanorod-Assisted Near-Infrared Stimulation of Primary Auditory Neurons

Ist Teil von

• Advanced healthcare materials, 2014-11, Vol.3 (11), p.1862-1868

Ort / Verlag

Weinheim: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

Wiley Online Library All Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Infrared stimulation offers an alternative to electrical stimulation of neuronal tissue, with potential for direct, non‐contact activation at high spatial resolution. Conventional methods of infrared neural stimulation (INS) rely on transient heating due to the absorption of relatively intense laser beams by water in the tissue. However, the water absorption also limits the depth of penetration of light in tissue. Therefore, the use of a near‐infrared laser at 780 nm to stimulate cultured rat primary auditory neurons that are incubated with silica‐coated gold nanorods (Au NRs) as an extrinsic absorber is investigated. The laser‐induced electrical behavior of the neurons is observed using whole‐cell patch clamp electrophysiology. The nanorod‐treated auditory neurons (NR‐ANs) show a significant increase in electrical activity compared with neurons that are incubated with non‐absorbing silica‐coated gold nanospheres and control neurons with no gold nanoparticles. The laser‐induced heating by the nanorods is confirmed by measuring the transient temperature increase near the surface of the NR‐ANs with an open pipette electrode. These findings demonstrate the potential to improve the efficiency and increase the penetration depth of INS by labeling nerves with Au NRs and then exposing them to infrared wavelengths in the water window of tissue. Primary auditory neurons incubated with silica‐coated gold nanorods exhibit enhanced electrical activity when exposed to 780 nm pulsed laser irradiation, as observed by whole‐cell patch‐clamp electrophysiology. The enhancement appears to be driven by the laser‐induced photothermal heating of Au NRs in the vicinity of the neurons.