Wireless platform for controlled nitric oxide releasing optical fibers for mediating biological response to implanted devices

Despite the documented potential to leverage nitric oxide generation to improve in vivo performance of implanted devices, a key limitation to current NO releasing materials tested thus far is that there has not been a means to modulate the level of NO release after it has been initiated. We report the fabrication of a wireless platform that uses light to release NO from a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) optical fiber coated with an S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine derivatized polydimethylsiloxane (SNAP-PDMS). We demonstrate that a VAOL-5GSBY4 LED (λdominant = 460 nm) can be used as a dynamic trigger to vary the level of NO released from 500 μm diameter coated PMMA. The ability to generate programmable sequences of NO flux from the surface of these coated fibers offers precise spatial and temporal control over NO release and provides a platform to begin the systematic study of in vivo physiological response to implanted devices. NO surface fluxes up to 3.88 ± 0.57 × 10−10 mol cm−2 min−1 were achieved with ∼100 μm thick coatings on the fibers and NO flux was pulsed, ramped and held steady using the wireless platform developed. We demonstrate the NO release is linearly proportional to the drive current applied to the LED (and therefore level of light produced from the LED). This system allow the surface flux of NO from the fibers to be continuously changed, providing a means to determine the level and duration of NO needed to mediate physiological response to blood contacting and subcutaneous implants and will ultimately lead to the intelligent design of NO releasing materials tailored to specific patterns of NO release needed to achieve reliable in vivo performance for intravascular and subcutaneous sensors and potentially for a wide variety of other implanted biomedical devices.

► Wireless system to allow programmed control of NO release.
► Dynamically controlled NO release from coated fibers with external light trigger.
► Linear relationship between intensity of light illuminating optical fiber and level of NO released.