Integration of Sperm Motility and Chemotaxis Screening with a Microchannel-Based Device

Clinical Chemistry

Chao Han¹  Lan Xie¹  Rui Ma¹  Jundong Wang¹  Lei Wang¹  Guoliang Huang¹  Qiufang Zhang¹  Jie Qiao¹  Jing Cheng¹  Tian Qiu¹  Kai Su¹ 

DOI  :  10.1373/clinchem.2010.146902

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: American Association for Clinical Chemistry

【 摘 要 】

BACKGROUND: Sperm screening is an essential step in in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. The swim-up method, an assay for sperm motility, is used clinically to select the ideal sperm for subsequent manipulation. However, additional parameters, including acrosome reaction capability, chemotaxis, and thermotaxis, are also important indicators of mammalian sperm health. To monitor both sperm motility and chemotaxis simultaneously during sperm screening, we designed and constructed a microdevice comprising a straight channel connected with a bibranch channel that mimics the mammalian female reproductive tract.METHODS: The width and length of the straight channel were optimized to select the motile sperms. We selectively cultured cumulus cells in the bibranch channel to generate a chemoattractant-forming chemical gradient. Sperm chemotaxis was represented by the ratio of the sperm swimming toward different branches.RESULTS: The percentage of motile sperms improved from 58.5% (3.8%) to 82.6% (2.9%) by a straight channel 7 mm in length and 1 mm in width. About 10% of sperms were found to be chemotactically responsive in our experiment, which is consistent with previous studies.CONCLUSIONS: For the first time, we achieved the combined evaluation of both sperm motility and chemotaxis. The motile and chemotactically responsive sperms can easily be enriched on a lab-on-a-chip device to improve IVF outcome.

【 授权许可】

Unknown