Development of ZnO NRs-rGO Low-Impedance Electrodes for Astrocyte Cell Signal Recording

The study of brain signals is now going beyond the traditional study of electrogenic neuronal cells. Currently, it has been demonstrated that even non-electrogenic cells present in the brain such as astrocytes can concur to physiological brain communication. Indeed, in the so-called tripartite synapse model, the small extracellular ionic currents, exchanged between astrocytes and neurons, are of interest to deeply understand local processes of transfer and storage of information. Current electrodes are limited by high-impedance and low selectivity and cannot efficiently detect signals in the range of few uV. A method to overcome these issues is the use of nanostructured glio-friendly electrodes for the development of low-impedance recording devices. In this work we present a new nanostructured bio-junction where Zinc Oxide nanorods can be implemented to improve impedance properties, while the addition of reduced Graphene Oxide is crucial to increase astrocyte adhesion and differentiation.