In Vivo Partial Restoration of Neural Activity across Severed Mouse Spinal Cord Bridged with Ultralong Carbon Nanotubes.

Electrically bridging severed nerves in vivo has transformative healthcare implications, but current materials are inadequate. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising, with low impedance, high charge injection capacity, high flexibility, are chemically inert, and can electrically couple to neurons. Ultralong CNTs are unexplored for neural applications. Using only ultralong CNTs in saline, without neuroregeneration or rehabilitation, we partially restored neural activity across a severed mouse spinal cord, recovering 23.8% of the intact amplitude, while preserving signal shape. Neural signals are preferentially facilitated over artifact signals by a factor of ×5.2, suggesting ultralong CNTs are a promising material for neural-scaffolding and neural-electronics applications.