3D electrode durability

Does anyone on this forum know how durable the 3D electrodes are? How doe you position the acute slice onto the grid without tearing up the tissue and damaging the electrode tips.

Thank you,
Ammar Hawasli
Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Good Morning Ammar,

it is not easy to answer your question in a general way, as it really depends, how the 3D MEAs are used.

If you use the 3D MEAs without coating, use them for acute slices, rinse off the slice with distilled water only they can last for up to 40 cycles.

If you however use coatings, use detergents and sonification for cleaning, have long term cultures or run very long and intense stimulus protocols electrodes will sufferand lifetime of the MEA is reduced

I order to position the slice without damaging tissue or electrodes most of our users have the slice floating on a drop of buffer. When the slice is in position the buffer is removed by micropipette and filterpaper tips.

Greetings

Thomas

I find 3D electrodes fairly durable. I have been working nearly every day with just one pair for a month and don't see any difference. These are Ayanda 50-70 uM high electrodes with 200 uM interelectrode spacing. It seems to me that uncoated 3D electrodes work better, however I never systematically checked this. I position the hippocampal slice on top of the electrode with a brush and then carefully press it down with a nylon mesh glued to a flattenned platinum wire. A couple of times things went wrong and I even hit the electrodes with the grid, but MEAs still worked fine after that.

Dear Ammar,

You will damage the MEA only when scratching its surface. In this case the epoxy polymer insulation layer will brake and leave parts of the electrode leads in contact with the saline solution...

On the other hand, the small glass tips are very robust and difficult to brake. There should be no problem on that side.

3D MEA durability depends on coating and cleaning procedures. We had some customer feedback reporting use of 3D MEAs with acute tissue slices up to more than 80 times...

Marc Heuschkel
CTO, Ayanda Biosystems SA