Low-Cost QCM Sensor System for Screening Semen Samples

Abstract

Artificial insemination is a well-established part of modern agricultural practice. A viable semen sample is judged by the total number of spermatozoa (sperm) in the sample and the motility of the sperm. In this paper, we report the development of a reusable measurement cell and electronics for screening semen samples based on the Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) and Universal Frequency to Digital Converter (UFDC-1) to produce a low-cost sensor system. After introducing the semen sample at one end of the measurement cell, sperm swim down a channel before causing a frequency change on the QCM. Data is presented that shows the different frequency changes using a commercial frequency counter caused by porcine semen samples, one two days old and one twenty one days old. Similar data is presented for a motile semen sample measurement using the low-cost UFDC-1.

Superhydrophobic Soot Coated Quartz Crystal Microbalances: A Novel Platform for Human Spermatozoa Quality Assessment

“…The extraordinary results obtained during the experiments and duly described in Section 4.2 and Section 4.3, determine the necessity of providing logical explanation of the observed dependences. Instead of yielding proportional frequency decrease and mass displacement increase upon attachment of immotile spermatozoa or HSA, as shown elsewhere [24,25,26,49], the uncoated QCM exhibits initial downward frequency movement (upward for the mass) that further ascends to higher frequencies (see Figure 2a,c and Figure 3a). In addition, quasisinusoidal resonance characteristics are recorded in the presence of motile sperm cells (see Figure 3c,d).…”

“…The uncoated sensor was used as reference with an aim to correlate our results with those reported in refs. [24,25,26] and identify the major advantages of the superhydrophobic device configuration compared to the hydrophilic one (blank quartz crystal). Upon stabilization of the signal in air (Δ f ±1 Hz), ~1 mL Global for fertilization was added on the sensor surface and the upper part of the holder was covered with a sterilized beaker, minimizing/preventing the liquid evaporation.…”

“…As a result, the QCM has demonstrated capabilities for high-sensitive detection of fibrinogen in plasma [17], salt concentrations in solutions [18], residual plasmin activity in milk [19], breast cancer [20], ractopamine in feed products [21], or the anti-biofouling potential of functional coatings [22,23]. Moreover, due to the absolute sensitivity of ng/cm 2 and preferential attachment of animal gametes on gold and Poly- l -Lysine coated surfaces, a few 5–10 MHz QCMs with gold electrode structure have recently been used for semen quality analysis of boars [24,25,26]. However, a significant disadvantage of the described QCM sensing platform is the excessive noise that is generated by the Tri X-cell diluent for sperm preservation, leading to concealed sensor signal (that associated with the arrival/attachment of immotile/motile spermatozoa) [26].…”

New Insights on Plasmin Long Term Stability and the Mechanism of Its Activity Inhibition Analyzed by Quartz Crystal Microbalance

“…Acoustic methods have several advantages, including reusable sensor substrate, labelfree detection, operation in non-transparent liquids, capability to evaluate viscoelastic properties in solution or at surfaces, and possibility of combining measurement with other techniques [35][36][37][38].…”

Using Quartz Crystal Microbalance for Field Measurement of Liquid Viscosities

“…During the last few decades, quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) are increasingly being studied as a sensitive, rapid, high-performance, and inexpensive microsensors capable of performing in liquid environments [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. A QCM is a shear mode device consisting of a thin quartz disk sandwiched between two circular, metallic electrodes of the same diameters.…”