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3D printing technology has fully entered the field of medicine, with the possibility of making prostheses, organs or facilitating research with cells. This week, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a new application based on this technology: brain implants obtained with a 3D printer.

Electrodes on the brain have been able to treat numerous disorders and monitor the activity of this vulnerable organ for years to better understand its functioning. Some advantages that compensate for possible side effects, such as inflammation, that metals and other rigid materials commonly used for its manufacture can cause in your delicate fabric.

To minimize these adverse effects, engineers at MIT and the Chinese universities of Jiangxi and Zheijiang set out to design a soft brain implant that had no metallic elements and was therefore less invasive for patients. The result is a flexible brain implant thanks to the fact that it has been manufactured using a plastic polymer that conducts electricity .

According to the magazine Nature Communications, the team led by Xuanhe Zhao, this soft implant adapts better to the contour of the brain. Zhao's team considers it an alternative to current metal electrodes that monitor brain activity and stimulate certain regions of the brain to reduce the symptoms of epilepsy, Parkinson's disease or patients suffering from severe depression.

In addition, they highlight that this type of technology will allow the manufacture of long-lasting devices. "In this research we have shown that a printed soft neural implant can measure the activity of a neuron for two weeks, a period of time comparable to that of some metal implants. Our goal is that the next generation of soft devices can work for months or even years on rats, "Xuanhe Zhao explains to EL MUNDO.

The engineers transformed a liquid solution of polymers (sodium polystyrene sulfonate) into a denser substance (with a texture similar to that of toothpaste) that they could introduce into a 3D printer.

Nanofibers

These types of liquid polymers are a mixture of water and polystyrene sulfonate nanofibers and are currently used as an antistatic surface coating in devices such as touch screens. The challenge was to transform it into a material that could be introduced into a 3D printer to make objects.

With this material that conducts electricity they printed several devices, including a small flexible electrode that they later implanted in the brain of a mouse. That electrode monitored the activity of a rodent neuron, which moved freely through a controlled space.

Human testing has not yet started : "Before starting clinical trials with people we would like to better validate 3D technology to make neural devices in animals," says Zhao, who does not dare give a date when these implants are available to doctors.

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