Liquid metal as reconnection agent for peripheral nerve injury

This study demonstrated an unconventional way to cure peripheral nerve injury (PNI) with liquid metal gallium employed as the reconnection agent. In vivo experiments were performed, in which transected sciatic nerve of mouse was reconnected by liquid metal gallium. The nerve signals detected was found to be almost the same as those from the complete nerve, where the negative bursting firing caused by PNI was absent on the neural discharge curve after nerve-reconnection surgery. Meanwhile the atrophy tendency of gastrocnemius muscle was distinctly procrastinated according to the results of pathological examinations, which showed fibrillation potentials emerged immediately for mice with PNI but did not emerge until the third month for those received nerve-reconnection surgery. Furthermore, physical properties of gallium were studied, showing that its impedance was slightly influenced by the frequency of transmitted signal and the temperature, which confirmed the stability of gallium in future clinical usage. This technology is expected to perform well in clinical surgery for PNI and even central nervous system injury in the coming time.