Motivation
Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts communication between the brain and body, often impairing autonomic functions like bladder control in addition to motor and sensory function. Recovery of bladder function is critical to quality of life in SCI patients. However, effective and accessible therapies remain limited. At the Texas Biomedical Device Center we address this by using Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) to promote functional recovery through targeted neuroplasticity. The results of this work could light a clear path towards FDA-approved closed-loop therapeutic devices for urinary dysfunction.
Our Solution
In preclinical rat models of SCI we precisely timed VNS to facilitate recovery of bladder function. During behavioral sessions, bladders were filled with warm saline, bladder pressure was monitored in real time, coercing the rat to void. Once voiding, VNS was manually triggered, modulating the autonomic circuits responsible for contracting the bladder's detrusor muscle and relaxing the internal urethral sphincter (Involuntary Mictrurition Reflex) and promote neuroplasticity, as the communication between the tension receptors in the detrusor muscle and the pontine mictruction center (PMC) are disrupted.
My Contributions
I assisted with 60+ paired voiding-VNS sessions, monitoring bladder pressure signals in real time and manually delivering stimulation during voiding events. Additionally, I microfabricated vagus nerve cuffs, headcaps, and electrode cabling used for implantation. Conducted routine health monitoring across the full animal cohort by tracking weight, detecting tumors, checking for overgrooming, and documenting general well-being ensuring ethical preclinical research and also accounting for variance across animals.
