Control of neural interfacing in peripheral nerves through regenerative molecular guidance

Regenerative peripheral nerve interfaces have been proposed as viable alternatives for the natural control of robotic prosthetic devices. However, random axonal pathfinding during peripheral nerve regeneration leads to mixed populations of sensory and motor neurons at the electrode interfaces preventing the precise identification of the modality nature of the recorded action potentials; motor or specific sensory sub-modalities. This study present evidence that supports the notion that type-specific neurotrophins can be used to preferentially entice and segregate the growth of defined axonal populations from transected peripheral nerves. Segregation of mixed sensory fibers from dorsal root ganglion neurons was evaluated in vitro by compartmentalized diffusion delivery of nerve growth factor (NGF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), to preferentially entice the growth of trkA+ nociceptive and trkC+ proprioceptive subsets of sensory neurons, respectively.