Stretchable micro-electrode arrays for dynamic neuronal recording of in vitro mechanically injured brain

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the result of sudden external mechanical forces applied to the head. Compression, stretching and shear deform the brain tissue inducing cellular damage that may develop within a couple of days following the initial trauma. TBI can be modeled in vitro by rapidly stretching brain slice cultures grown on silicone membranes. Stretchable micro-electrode arrays (SMEAs) prepared on such elastomeric substrates will enable the electrical recording of brain neuronal activity prior to, during and after mechanical deformation, promising new insights in mechano-biology and possible therapeutic interventions. SMEAs of 2times2 thin gold micro-electrode arrays have been patterned on 250mum thick silicone membranes. We report their fabrication process and electro-mechanical characteristics. The first SMEA prototypes are biocompatible with brain organotypic hippocampal cultures and robust to rapid equi-biaxial stretching at a 2,000% per second strain rate to 20% strain