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Microfluidics in assisted reproduction technology: Towards automation of the in vitro fertilization laboratory
Published in David K. Gardner, Ariel Weissman, Colin M. Howles, Zeev Shoham, Textbook of Assisted Reproductive Techniques, 2017
Another approach employing microfluidics for sperm sorting utilized mouse sperm placed into a PDMS/ glass device to isolate sperm based on motility, but also via chemotaxis towards cumulus cells (56). Sperm were placed into an inlet reservoir (2-mm radius) and allowed to swim down a straight channel, whose dimensions were optimized for motile sperm recovery at 1 x 7 mm (width x length). Sperm then collected in a small central reservoir (1.25-mm radius), where video imaging could occur, before swimming onward into one of two branching channels (1 x 5 mm, width x length), each leading to separate collection reservoirs (2-mm radii). Other microfluidic devices to explore sperm chemotaxis exist and offer further methods to explore sperm function (57, 58). Devices also exist to examine rheotaxis in sperm (59, 60).
Rheotaxis of sperm in fertile and infertile men
Published in Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 2023
Timor M. El-sherry, Mohammed A. Abdel-Ghani, Hatem K. Abdel Hafez, Mohammed Abdelgawad
Microfluidics technology, which enables the manipulation of liquids in miniaturized networks of microchannels, has appeared as a useful tool that helps mimic different environments of reproductive parts through which the sperm is transported to the site of fertilization. Natural coitus in humans results in the deposition of sperm in the vagina near the entrance of the cervix, from which the sperm swims through the cervix, uterus, and isthmus to reach the ovum in the ampulla (Miki and Clapham 2013; Suarez 2016; Suarez and Wu 2017). Each of these segments has a different fluidic, ionic, and molecular environment, which plays a role in sperm competence (Suarez and Wu 2017). Positive rheotaxis (PR), the tendency of a cell to orient and swim against the flow of the surrounding fluid, plays an important role in sperm guidance over long distances in the mammalian female reproductive tract in humans (Miki and Clapham 2013) and cattle (El-Sherry et al. 2014). Recently, it has been reported that PR examination of ram sperm can help to evaluate the reproductive performance of the ram, which will provide valuable insights into the ram sperm evaluation (Abdel-Ghani et al. 2020).