Spermatozoa of the first grade
Acoustic waves for sperm sorting
Maria Tolmacheva, XX2 century
Researchers from Monash University in Australia have developed a device for isolating high-quality sperm from sperm samples. This process could improve the chances of having children for couples who have trouble conceiving. The technology uses acoustic waves to separate suitable spermatozoa in clinically significant quantities and is faster, less time-consuming and not as harmful to spermatozoa as modern procedures already available.
Article by Gai et al. High DNA integrity sperm selection using surface acoustic waves is published in the journal Lab on a Chip – VM.
Approximately one in six couples may have difficulty conceiving, with male infertility playing a role in about 30% of cases, and a combination of male and female factors in about 50% of cases. For such couples, assisted reproductive technologies are relevant, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). However, these procedures can be expensive and do not always work, and if the sperm is of poor quality, the chances of success may be even less.
For the IVF procedure, doctors try to select the best sperm from sperm samples.
"Male infertility is a global reproductive problem, and several clinical approaches have been developed to solve it. However, their effectiveness is limited by time-consuming and lengthy sperm selection procedures," explains Reza Nosrati, one of the authors of the work.
Modern approaches assume the selection of spermatozoa primarily by mobility and have not undergone significant changes in 30 years.
"Preparation or selection of spermatozoa is a key stage of assisted reproductive manipulations immediately before fertilization of an egg. The current clinical process includes several stages of washing and centrifugation, as well as manual sampling, and takes up to three hours, which can be harmful to sperm," says Nosrati.
To solve these problems, researchers have developed a microfluidic device capable of quickly and automatically isolating high-quality sperm from untreated sperm samples. The technique involves the use of acoustic waves to separate spermatozoa with sufficient DNA integrity and normal morphology of the head from dead or damaged cells.
Figure from the IVF Boost press release: Monash researchers use acoustic waves to select high-quality sperms.
By acting on the original sperm sample with a directed sound of a certain intensity, scientists push healthy motile spermatozoa out of the total mass and direct them into the microchannel. Insufficiently mobile and damaged spermatozoa remain in the original sample. This technique allows you to quickly select a clinically significant number of high-quality sperm (up to 60,000 in 50 minutes), and the researchers hope that it will be able to improve the results for couples resorting to assisted reproductive technologies.
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