Canadian engineers have created an unusual laser soldering iron that allows parts of recently damaged nerve cells to be glued together, potentially opening the way for the creation of devices for repairing a torn and partially damaged spinal cord and other important parts of the nervous system.
Photo: UAlberta Engineering
For the first time, Canadian engineers and neurophysiologists have learned to connect torn nerve fibers and "solder" different nerve cells using a laser, which paves the way for fundamentally new methods of treating spinal cord injuries, according to an article published in Scientific Reports.
“We are not neurophysiologists, we are simple engineers. We are developing devices that help scientists achieve what they could not do before in experiments or in medical practice. At one time, I became very interested in why it was impossible to “glue” a torn nerve. I wondered what would happen if we 'weld' a newly damaged neuron, said Nir Kaczynski of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
Kaczynski, an engineer by training, and his colleagues tested and successfully implemented this idea using ultra-fast and ultra-powerful lasers, whose flash lasts about 1 to minus 15 degrees of a second, and a special fluid that prevented neurons from sticking together.
During the experiment, scientists took both nerve cells in special "tweezers", brought them closer to each other and "fired" at them using a laser beam. According to the researchers, this "operation" did not lead to the destruction of the membrane of the neurons, but to "solder" them with each other and form a common cell membrane.
Such "soldering", as the researchers emphasize, took only 15 milliseconds, while in vivo neurons reconnect with each other after tens of hours. So far, scientists have tested this "laser soldering" on three types of cells, but in the near future they plan to conduct experiments on a number of cancer cells that can be destroyed using such devices.
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“So far we cannot say that it is possible to take this instrument and 'solder' with its help the injured spinal cord, but its creation brings us closer to solving this problem. We now have a better understanding of how these neurosoldering irons will work,”concludes Abdul Elezzabi, a colleague of Kaczynski.
