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Artificial Vision 2015

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

27.11. - 28.11.2015, Aachen

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Validation of photovoltaic subretinal implants on ex-vivo blind non-human primate retinas

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  • Paul-Henri Prévot - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • S. Dalouz - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • K. Blaize - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • E. Dubus - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • J. Porceddu - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • C. Nouvel-Jaillard - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • G. Goetz - Stanford University, Stanford, USA
  • M. Deterre - Pixium Vision, Paris, France
  • G. Buc - Pixium Vision, Paris, France
  • J.A. Sahel - Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • S. Picaud - Institut de la vision, Paris, France

Artificial Vision 2015. Aachen, 27.-28.11.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2016. Doc15artvis17

doi: 10.3205/15artvis17, urn:nbn:de:0183-15artvis179

Published: March 7, 2016

© 2016 Prévot et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Patients with retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) lose sight through photoreceptor degeneration. Surviving neural cells in the inner and retinal ganglion cell (RGC) layer of the retina can be electrically stimulated to restore percepts of sight. Photovoltaic subretinal implants have been shown to elicit retinal ganglion cell action potentials by electrically stimulating the inner nuclear layer in rodent models of retinal degeneration. However, it remains unclear if such implants can also modulate RGC activity in primates. To address this question, we created an ex vivo model of a degenerate primate retina and assessed its response to stimulation by a photovoltaic implant. We recorded from RGCs using a multielectrode array while concurrently activating the implant with pulses of near-infrared light (NIR, 880-915nm) of varying intensities and pulse width. RGCs responded to full-field stimulation as well as stimulation from a single 140µm-wide pixel. Stimulation of a single pixel for 1 to 10 ms generated responses in retinal ganglion cells. These results demonstrate that our photovoltaic subretinal implants can stimulate primate retinal ganglion cells in a degenerated retinal model. They pave the way for future clinical trials to assess visual restoration in blind patients using these new modular miniaturized photovoltaic implants, potentially providing an elegant solution for AMD population.