Enhanced sperm isolation via bulk acoustic waves for high-throughput motility screening

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Reproductive Biology
• Cellular Manipulation

Background:

• Male infertility is a significant global health concern, with male factors contributing to over 50% of cases.
• Traditional sperm processing methods like density gradient centrifugation can damage sperm DNA and are invasive.
• Microfluidics offers a promising non-invasive alternative for biological cell manipulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel microfluidic device for non-invasive sperm selection.
• To improve sperm quality, including motility, viability, and DNA integrity.
• To offer a faster, cost-effective, and less damaging alternative to current clinical methods.

Main Methods:

• Utilized microvortices generated by oscillating bubbles induced by bulk acoustic waves within a microfluidic channel.
• Trapped less motile sperm using microvortices.
• Guided highly motile sperm along channel boundaries to an outlet pool.

Main Results:

• Achieved over 50% improvement in progressive sperm motility.
• Observed a 44% improvement in sperm viability.
• Demonstrated a 40% improvement in sperm DNA integrity in retrieved sperm.

Conclusions:

• The developed acoustic-wave-driven microfluidic device effectively isolates high-quality sperm non-invasively.
• This technology offers significant improvements in sperm parameters crucial for reproductive success.
• The method is fast, requires no sample preprocessing, and is easy to use.