Brain implants are promising instruments for a broad variety of nervous tissue diseases with a wide range of applications, e.g. for stimulation, signal recording or local drug delivery. Recently, graphene-based scaffold materials have emerged as attractive candidates as neural interfaces, 3D scaffolds, or drug delivery systems due to their excellent properties like flexibility, high surface area, conductivity, and lightweight. To date, however, there is a lack of appropriate studies of the foreign body response, especially by glial cells, towards graphene-based materials. In this work, we investigated the effects of macroscopic, highly porous (>99.9%) graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) (conductivity ∼1 S m⁻¹) scaffolds with tailorable macro- and microstructure on human astrocyte and microglial cell viability and proliferation as well as expression of neuroinflammation and astrogliosis associated genes in an indirect contact approach. In this in vitro model, as well as ex vivo in organotypic murine brain slices, we could demonstrate that both GO and rGO based 3D scaffolds exert slight effects on the glial cell populations which are the key players of glial scar formation. These effects were in most cases completely abolished by curcumin, a known anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic drug that could in perspective be applied to brain implants as a protectant.

脑植入物是用于各种神经组织疾病的有前途的仪器，具有广泛的应用，例如用于刺激、信号记录或局部药物输送。最近，基于石墨烯的支架材料因其柔韧性、高表面积、导电性和重量轻等优异特性而成为神经接口、3D 支架或药物输送系统等极具吸引力的候选材料。然而，迄今为止，缺乏对异物反应的适当研究，特别是神经胶质细胞对石墨烯基材料的反应。在这项工作中，我们研究了宏观、高度多孔 (>99.9%) 氧化石墨烯 (GO) 和还原氧化石墨烯 (rGO)（电导率 ~1 S m ^-1) 具有可定制的宏观和微观结构的支架，以间接接触方式对人类星形胶质细胞和小胶质细胞的活力和增殖以及神经炎症和星形胶质细胞增生相关基因的表达。在这个体外模型中，以及器官型小鼠脑切片的离体模型中，我们可以证明基于 GO 和 rGO 的 3D 支架对作为胶质瘢痕形成的关键参与者的胶质细胞群产生轻微影响。在大多数情况下，姜黄素完全消除了这些作用，姜黄素是一种已知的抗炎和抗纤维化药物，可以作为保护剂应用于脑植入物。