Lab on a chip devices for fertility: from proof-of-concept to clinical impact

Nosrati, Reza

doi:10.1039/d1lc01144h

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Fresh samples were incubated at 37°C for 30 min to liquefy. The swim-up method ( 73 ) was then used to isolate motile sperm from immotile cells and debris. Hepes-buffered salt solution (117 mM NaCl, 5.3 mM KCl, 2.3 mM CaCl 2 , 0.8 mM MgSO 4 , 1 mM NaH 2 PO 4 , 5.5 mM d -glucose, 0.03 mM phenol red, 4 mM NaHCO 3 , 21 mM Hepes, 0.33 mM Na-pyruvate, and 21.4 mM Na-lactate) supplemented with polyvinyl alcohol (1 mg ml −1 ) was used to run the swim-up assay.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making immotile sperm motile using high-frequency ultrasound

Vafaie,

Raveshi,

Devendran

et al. 2024

Sci. Adv.

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Sperm motility is a natural selection with a crucial role in both natural and assisted reproduction. Common methods for increasing sperm motility are by using chemicals that cause embryotoxicity, and the multistep washing requirements of these methods lead to sperm DNA damage. We propose a rapid and noninvasive mechanotherapy approach for increasing the motility of human sperm cells by using ultrasound operating at 800 mW and 40 MHz. Single-cell analysis of sperm cells, facilitated by droplet microfluidics, shows that exposure to ultrasound leads to up to 266% boost to motility parameters of relatively immotile sperm, and as a result, 72% of these immotile sperm are graded as progressive after exposure, with a swimming velocity greater than 5 micrometer per second. These promising results offer a rapid and noninvasive clinical method for improving the motility of sperm cells in the most challenging assisted reproduction cases to replace intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with less invasive treatments and to improve assisted reproduction outcomes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making immotile sperm motile using high-frequency ultrasound

Vafaie,

Raveshi,

Devendran

et al. 2024

Sci. Adv.

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“…Microfluidic devices have been developed to select sperm typically through motility-based behavioral mechanisms, thereby preventing the oxidative stress and DNA fragmentation induced by centrifugation 3,4,16 . The clinical translation of these technologies has been infrequent 17 , largely due to their complexity of operation. Without an intuitive user interface, many devices have not undergone side-by-side clinical testing to evaluate their performance by clinicians.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm quality metrics were improved by a biomimetic microfluidic selection platform compared to swim-up methods

Vasilescu¹,

Ding

Parast

et al. 2023

Microsyst Nanoeng

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Sperm selection is an essential component of all assisted reproductive treatments (ARTs) and is by far the most neglected step in the ART workflow in regard to technological innovation. Conventional sperm selection methodologies typically produce a higher total number of sperm with variable motilities, morphologies, and levels of DNA integrity. Gold-standard techniques, including density gradient centrifugation (DGC) and swim-up (SU), have been shown to induce DNA fragmentation through introducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) during centrifugation. Here, we demonstrate a 3D printed, biologically inspired microfluidic sperm selection device (MSSP) that utilizes multiple methods to simulate a sperms journey toward selection. Sperm are first selected based on their motility and boundary-following behavior and then on their expression of apoptotic markers, yielding over 68% more motile sperm than that of previously reported methods with a lower incidence of DNA fragmentation and apoptosis. Sperm from the MSSP also demonstrated higher motile sperm recovery after cryopreservation than that of SU or neat semen. Experiments were conducted side-by-side against conventional SU methods using human semen (n = 33) and showed over an 85% improvement in DNA integrity with an average 90% reduction in sperm apoptosis. These results that the platform is easy-to-use for sperm selection and mimics the biological function of the female reproductive tract during conception.

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“…In another study, 17 sperm with almost 100% motility and high DNA integrity were separated by guiding the cells to swim against a secondary flow from an inlet chamber to a collection chamber, but it suffered from a relatively low retrieval efficiency (a low number of isolated cells) or a long processing time (∼1 hour). Boundaryfollowing is another natural swimming characteristic of sperm to accumulate near surfaces and follow boundaries 18,19 and corners in microconfined environments. Boundary-following behaviour has been used to develop high-throughput platforms with parallelized networks of microchannels [20][21][22] or microarrays 23 to separate highly motile sperm with normal morphology and improved DNA integrity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%