Recording of electrically evoked neural activity and bladder pressure responses in awake rats chronically implanted with a pelvic nerve array

Study Purpose: Bioelectronic medical devices are well established and widely used in the treatment of urological dysfunction. Here, we developed a device suitable for long-term use in an awake rat model that was used in a preclinical study of electrical neuromodulation of the pelvic nerve (homolog of the human pelvic splanchnic nerves). This candidate neuromodulation target contains sacral visceral sensory and autonomic motor pathways that coordinate storage and voiding functions of the bladder.

Data Collection: This dataset contains
Recordings of electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) made under anesthesia in chronically implanted, awake rats up to 8 weeks post-surgery
Recordings of colonic pressure made during electrical stimulation trials
Recordings of baseline unstimulated cystometrograms suggesting chronic implantation of the array had minimal effect of void parameters
Example cystometry recordings where electrical stimulation with chronically implanted arrays induced two classes of bladder pressure responses detected in awake rats: voiding contractions and non-voiding contractions
Primary Conclusions: These results demonstrate a rat pelvic nerve electrode array that can be used for preclinical development of closed-loop neuromodulation devices targeting the pelvic nerve as a therapy for neuro-urological dysfunction.