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Abstract
Damaged nerve function can be repaired by applying external stimuli, and the selective stimulation of nerve fibers is the highest goal of nerve functional repair. This paper proposes a method of using multichannel near-infrared lasers to achieve the selective stimulation of axons in different areas in a mixed nerve bundle. An exposed bullfrog sciatic nerve was considered the object of study to realize the selective stimulation. A model was established by using COMSOL Multiphysics to simulate the temperature distribution of nerves under multichannel near-infrared laser stimulation. The results of this model showed that by changing the distance between the laser fiber and the nerve (d) or the power of the 4 lasers (P), the axons at different parts of the nerve bundle may be selectively stimulated. If only the axons located in the center are selected to be activated, it is necessary to set thed andP value in the four directions to the same value. If only axons on the nerve edge are selected for activation, we can reduce thed value of the nearest laser (or increaseP) and increase thed value of lasers in other directions (or decreaseP). If only axons in the shallow area below the surface between the two lasers are selected for activation, it is necessary to reduce thed value of the laser in two directions close there (or increaseP) and increase thed value of the laser in the other two directions (or decreaseP). If only the axons of the superficial region on the coordinate axis are activated, thed value of the laser in the farthest direction can be increased (or decreaseP) and thed value of the other three lasers can be reduced (or increaseP). Moreover, the results of animal experiments further verify the feasibility of our method to realize selective activation of the axons.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Nature Science Foundation of China Grant (No. 31500796).
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Authors and Affiliations
Key Laboratory of Biomaterials of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Institution of Biomedical Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, Guangdong, China
Rui Zhou & Zongxia Mou
Hubei Key Laboratory of Medical Information Analysis and Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, China
Dandan Yang
Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China
Xing Wang
- Rui Zhou
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Appendix
Appendix
According to Beer-Lambert Law,
Where,
- T:
the transmittance (the ratio of transmitted light intensity to incident light intensity).
- K :
the extinction coefficient of the solution (L/g/cm).
- C :
the concentration of the solution (g/L).
- l :
the optical path of the solution (cm).
In this paper,μα = 1/lα.
- μα:
the absorption coefficient (1/cm).
- lα :
the absorption length (cm).
- lα :
is also the optical path whenT = 1/e, whereAUα = lg(1/T) = lge = 0.43429448. According to Formula (8),AUα = KClα, then
From the measurement results we can see thatAU is about 2 at λ = 808 nm, whereC = 3e-5 g/l, andl = 1 cm. So according to Formula (8),
Where,
K andC is equal to those in Formula (9) andl is the equal the thickness of the cuvette (l = 1 cm). Then solve formulas (9) and (10),μα = 4.6 (1/cm) = 460 (1/m).
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Zhou, R., Mou, Z., Yang, D.et al. Theoretical simulation of the selective stimulation of axons in different areas of a nerve bundle by multichannel near-infrared lasers.Med Biol Eng Comput60, 205–220 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02475-y
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