Abstract: Brain stimulators are used to treat a variety of disorders, and their range of uses continues expand. However, one problem with long-term stimulation of neural tissue is the need to increase the stimulation parameters to continue to maintain the same clinical effect. This is thought to be due to local tissue reaction to the implanted foreign body. Because the implanted stimulator functions by means of contact with functional cells within the tissue, prevention of tissue reaction to the stimulator would make a significant improvement to the device's performance and longevity. It is proposed that coating a neural stimulator device with decorin, and/or homologous molecules of functional or structural likeness to decorin, can function to decrease gliosis and other local tissue reaction in neural tissue.

Abstract: Brain stimulators are used to treat a variety of disorders, and their range of uses continues expand. However, one problem with long-term stimulation of neural tissue is the need to increase the stimulation parameters to continue to maintain the same clinical effect. This is thought to be due to local tissue reaction to the implanted foreign body. Because the implanted stimulator functions by means of contact with functional cells within the tissue, prevention of tissue reaction to the stimulator would make a significant improvement to the device's performance and longevity. It is proposed that coating a neural stimulator device with decorin, and/or homologous molecules of functional or structural likeness to decorin, can function to decrease gliosis and other local tissue reaction in neural tissue.