With three models in commercial use, artificial retinas are the most concrete hope to restore sight to blind patients, notably those affected with retinitis pigmentosa. However, present architectures are costly to produce, while the restored visual acuity remains below the legal threshold for blindness. Furthermore, the complexity of current systems with tethered application‐specific integrated circuits (asics) requires complex surgeries, with risks of complications and failures. In the search for new nanomaterials, it is demonstrated that, when placed in contact with photoreceptors (control mouse retinas) or directly with bipolar cells (rhodopsin^P23H mouse retinas, a model of retinitis pigmentosa), films of vertically aligned anatase titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanotubes can drive the activity of the retinal network for stimulation frequencies up to the video rate (25 Hz), in response to short (5–20 ms), small (50–100 µm) light spots. Acting as continuous arrays of electrodes, these films should allow a fine tuning of prosthetic stimulations, through modulation of the spot size, duration, and precise localization over the implant surface.

中文翻译：

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TiO2纳米管对正常和盲人视网膜的高频刺激

在三种商业模型中，人工视网膜是恢复盲人患者尤其是色素性视网膜炎患者视力的最具体希望。然而，当前的架构生产成本高昂，而恢复的视敏度仍低于失明的法定阈值。此外，当前具有专用集成电路（asics）的系统的复杂性要求复杂的手术，存在并发症和故障的风险。在寻找新的纳米材料时，证明了当与感光体（对照小鼠视网膜）或与双极细胞（视紫红^素P23H小鼠视网膜，色素性视网膜炎的模型）直接接触时，垂直排列的锐钛型二氧化钛（TiO2）膜_2个）纳米管可以响应短（5–20 ms），小（50–100 µm）的光斑，在高达视频速率（25 Hz）的刺激频率下驱动视网膜网络的活动。这些膜充当电极的连续阵列，应通过调节光斑大小，持续时间以及在植入物表面上的精确定位来实现对假体刺激的微调。