Bioelectrical and Neuroengineering Commons^™

Nerve Fiber Diameter Measurements Using Hematoxylin And Eosin Staining And Brightfield Microscopy To Assess The Novel Method Of Characterizing Peripheral Nerve Fiber Distributions By Group Delay, Jorge Arturo Vazquez

Master's Theses

Peripheral neuropathies are a set of common diseases that affect the peripheral nervous system, causing damage to vital connections between various parts of the body and the brain and spinal cord. Different clinical conditions are known to selectively impact various size nerve fibers, which often makes it difficult to diagnose which peripheral neuropathy a patient might have. The nerve conduction velocity diagnostic test provides clinically useful information in the diagnosis of some peripheral neuropathies. This method is advantageous because it tends to be minimally invasive yet it provides valuable diagnostic information. However, this test does not determine characteristics of peripheral …

Delivery Of Interleukin-15 To B16 Melanoma By Electroporation Leads To Tumor Regression And Long-Term Survival, Bernadette Marrero, Shawna Shirley, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

Electroporation (EP) is a method used to physically deliver therapeutic molecules such as plasmid DNA directly to tissues. It has been used safely and successfully in clinical studies and preclinical cancer models to deliver genes to a variety of tissues. In cancer research cytokine therapy is emerging as a promising tool that can be used to boost the host response to tumor antigens. The delivery of cytokines as recombinant proteins can result in toxicity and other adverse effects; however the delivery of cytokine genes using EP has been shown to be safe and effective. Interleukin 15 (IL-15) is a cytokine …

Electrotransfer Of Single-Stranded Or Double-Stranded Dna Induces Complete Regression Of Palpable B16.F10 Mouse Melanomas, Loree Heller, Vesba Todorovic, Maja Cemazar

Bioelectrics Publications

Enhanced tumor delivery of plasmid DNA with electric pulses in vivo has been confirmed in many preclinical models. Intratumor electrotransfer of plasmids encoding therapeutic molecules has reached Phase II clinical trials. In multiple preclinical studies, a reduction in tumor growth, increased survival or complete tumor regression have been observed in control groups in which vector or backbone plasmid DNA electrotransfer was performed. This study explores factors that could produce this antitumor effect. The specific electrotransfer pulse protocol employed significantly potentiated the regression. Tumor regression was observed after delivery of single-stranded or double-stranded DNA with or without CpG motifs in both …

Novel Phantoms And Post-Processing For Diffusion Spectrum Imaging, Vaibhav Juneja

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) techniques, including Diffusion Spectrum Imaging (DSI), have been proposed to resolve crossing and other complex fiber architecture in the human brain white matter. In these methods, directional information of diffusion is inferred from the peaks in the orientation distribution function (ODF). Extensive studies using histology on macaque brain, cat cerebellum, rat hippocampus and optic tracts, and bovine tongue are qualitatively in agreement with the DSI-derived ODFs and tractography. However, there are only two studies in the literature which validated the DSI results using physical phantoms and both these studies were not performed on a …

Electrical & Magnetic Stimulation And Health, Yiyan Li

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

1, Introduction Most of the patients with neural diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Stroke and Depression, cannot be cured by taking pills or conducting surgery. In contrast to the conventional therapies, physical therapies such as TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) (Fig. 1) and tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) (Fig. 2) are the most popular methods in treating neural disorders with a non-invasive way. TMS employs electromagnetic (1-3 Tesla) induction generates an Electric field suitable for neural stimulation; tDCS employs a weak current (1-2 mA) to modulate neuronal excitabilities.

Functional Electrical Stimulation In Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, Meir Hildeshaim

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The following is an excerpt from the introduction to this article: Spinal cord injury is defined as a “disconnection syndrome” that results in a loss of ability of the spinal cord to communicate ascending and/or descending impulses (Hamid and Hayak 2008). Due to its role as the primary conduit of motor and sensory impulses, spinal cord injury is widely regarded as one of the most catastrophic, survivable injuries a person can suffer. Depending on the severity and placement of the injury, the patient can experience a wide range of disability or death. A mild injury may result in the patient …

A New Pulsed Electric Field Therapy For Melanoma Disrupts The Tumor's Blood Supply And Causes Complete Remission Without Recurrence, Richard Nuccitelli, Xinhua Chen, Andrei G. Pakhomov, Wallace H. Baldwin, Saleh Sheikh, Jennifer L. Pomicter, Wei Ren, Chris Osgood, R. James Swanson, Juergen F. Kolb, Stephen J. Beebe, Karl H. Schoenbach

Bioelectrics Publications

We have discovered a new, ultrafast therapy for treating skin cancer that is extremely effective with a total electric field exposure time of only 180 mu sec. The application of 300 high-voltage (40 kV/cm), ultrashort (300 nsec) electrical pulses to murine melanomas in vivo triggers both necrosis and apoptosis, resulting in complete tumor remission within an average of 47 days in the 17 animals treated. None of these melanomas recurred during a 4-month period after the initial melanoma had disappeared. These pulses generate small, long-lasting, rectifying nanopores in the plasma membrane of exposed cells, resulting in increased membrane permeability to …

Microfabrication Of An Optical Chamber For Exposing Living Cells To Pulsed Electric Fields, Saleh Sheikh

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

I have fabricated a chamber which enables the application of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields (nsPEFs) to living cells while monitoring their real time fluorescence with an inverted microscope. The No. I thickness (150µm nominal) coverslip glass substrate used for fabrication allows the use of high numerical aperture oil immersion objectives for imaging intracellular organelles. Electrodes are fabricated by first evaporating a chromium adhesion layer, followed by a nickel seed layer. Subsequently, an ultra-thick positive photoresist is applied and patterned to create a 30µm thick electroplating mold. The electrodes are then electrodeposited into the mold from a nickel sulfamate plating bath. …

Simulation And Modeling Of Nerve Impulse Propagation And Its Blockage By External Electrical Stimulation, Nidhi Nahar

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The electric nature of biological tissues permits the transmission of signals for information and for control and is, therefore, of vital importance for life. The latest scientific achievements and nanoscale probing techniques now allow scientists to research at the subcellular level by measuring the electric current flows through a single ion channel of the cell membrane with the patch-clamp method. With the latter approach, the effects of electrical stimulation can be quantified, understood, and applied to molecular biology and the development of medical diagnostic and therapeutic methods.

In this thesis, the Hodgkin-Huxley approach for unmyelinated fibers, coupled with a transmission …

The Effects Of Ultrashort Pulsed Electric Fields On The Fluorescent Molecule Bodipy Fl C5 Ceramide, Rachael Sara Shevin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nanosecond pulsed electric fields are able to manipulate internal cell organelles by taking advantage of the small but finite time required for charge to establish across a capacitive barrier. Pulsed electric fields also affect macromolecular structures such as enzymes and proteins. Application of a single nanosecond pulsed electric field decreases the fluorescence of a commercially available biological dye Bodipy FL C₅ Ceramide, used to observe the Golgi apparatus of living cells. The effect is seen when the fluorophore is exposed to an electric field both in vitro and when incorporated into the Golgi of a living Jurkat cell. Observation …

Temporal Calcium Response Of Jurkat Cells To Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Shaka Shakar Scarlett

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEF) of megavolt per meter field strengths can interact with subcellular structures [1] and consequently trigger a variety of biological events. The exposure can induce apoptosis, as well as an array of differential "sub-lethal effects." One of the most sensitive and immediate responses is the increase in intracellular calcium concentration in pulsed cells [2], [3][4].We investigated the response of Jurkat cells (a human leukemic cell line) to nsPEFs of 60 ns duration and field strengths from 25 tol00 kV/cm. The development of the induced calcium response in individual cells was studied by spinning-disc confocal microscopy with …

Aneuploidy Frequencies In Semen Fractions From Ten Oligoasthenoteratozoospermic Patients Donating Sperm For Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, Jerome Pfeffer, Myung-Geol Pang, Stanton F. Hoegerman, Christopher J. Osgood, M. W. Stacey, Jacob Mayer, Sergio Oehninger, William G. Kearns

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective: To determine aneuploidy frequencies in pellet and swim-up semen fractions from 10 infertile men with severe oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) who were donating sperm for intracytoplasmic sperm injection and to determine whether the swim-up isolation method would successfully separate aneuploid from haploid sperm.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Infertility clinic and molecular genetics laboratory.

Patient(s): Ten patients with severe OAT.

Intervention(s): Cytogenetic analyses by fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine aneuploidy frequencies for chromosomes 1, 13, 18, 21, X, and Y in sperm from swim-up and pellet fractions.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Gametic aneuploidy was scored in sperm fractions separated by the swim-up …