Modeling the electrical activity in myelinated nerve fibers: Towards the electrophysiological validation of neuronal bridges

NILDA MARIA DE MARCO; MARIA CECILIA SOCCI; CARLA BELÉN GOY; ANA LÍA ALBARRACÍN; CARMELO JOSÉ FELICE; FERNANDO DANIEL FARFÁN

Piriapolis

Congreso; XXII Congreso Argentino De Bioingenieria y XI Jornadas De Ingenieria Clinica; 2020

Sociedad Argentina de Bioingeniería

When severe injuries occur in the Central or Peripheric Nervous Tissue, this often triggers events that permanently damage the neurological function, which leads to a reduction in the patient?s quality of life. The use of bio-materials scaffolding to create bridges that re-establish the lost connections are promising, but currently, have limited applicability; and electrophysiological and biological validations demand considerable time, so it is still a field being explored by many investigators around the world. In this paper a simplified empirical model is proposed to describe an action potential generation an conduction through myelinic fibers. The model's electrophysiological validation was performed through qualitative analysis in three experimental situations that call for action potential: a) sciatic nerve in frog, b) giant lateral axons and giant medial axon in earthworm, and c) infraorbital nerve in rats. Results evidence the proposed empirical model's great versatility to the different evoked action potentials. The proposed model could become a valuable tool to determine the percentage of functionally connected fibers through neural bridges made of various materials.