Strictures of a microchannel impose fierce competition to select for highly motile sperm

Investigating sperm locomotion in the presence of external fluid flow and geometries simulating the female reproductive tract can lead to a better understanding of sperm motion during fertilization. Using a microfluidic device featuring a stricture that simulates the fluid mechanical properties of narrow junctions inside the female reproductive tract, we documented the gate-like role played by the stricture in preventing sperm with motilities below a certain threshold from advancing through the stricture to the other side (i.e., fertilization site). All the slower sperm accumulate below (i.e., in front of) the stricture and swim in a butterfly-shaped path between the channel walls, thus maintaining the potential for penetrating the stricture and ultimately advancing toward the fertilization site. Accumulation below the stricture occurs in a hierarchical manner so that dense concentrations of sperm with higher velocities remain closer to the stricture, with more sparsely distributed arrays of lower-velocity sperm lagging behind.