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PMID: 27385726 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Review Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Microfluidic devices for the study of sperm migration.

Molecular human reproduction ·Vol. 23 ·No. 4 ·2017-00-01 ·Pages 227-234

Suarez SS, Wu M

Abstract

Microfluidics technology offers us an opportunity to model the biophysical and biochemical environments encountered by sperm moving through the female reproductive tract and, at the same time, to study sperm swimming dynamics at a quantitative level. In humans, coitus results in the deposition of sperm in the vagina at the entrance to the cervix. Consequently, sperm must swim or be drawn through the cervix, uterus, uterotubal junction and oviductal isthmus to reach the oocyte in the oviductal ampulla. Only a very small percentage of inseminated sperm reach the ampulla in the periovulatory period, indicating that strong selection pressures act on sperm during migration. A better understanding of how sperm interact with the female tract would inspire improvements in diagnosis of fertility problems and development of novel-assisted reproductive technologies that minimize damage to sperm and mimic natural selection pressures on sperm.

Keywords
cervix chemotaxis fallopian tube microfluidics oviduct rheotaxis sperm migration sperm motility uterus
MeSH Terms
Animals Cervix Uteri/anatomy & histology,physiology Chemotaxis/physiology Fallopian Tubes/anatomy & histology,physiology Female Fertility/physiology Humans Lab-On-A-Chip Devices Male Microfluidics/instrumentation,methods Oocytes/cytology,physiology Reproduction/physiology Sperm Motility/physiology Spermatozoa/cytology,physiology
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Suarez S S
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Wu M
Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular human reproduction
Abbr.
Mol Hum Reprod
ISSN
1460-2407
DOI
10.1093/molehr/gaw039
Published
2017-00-01
Pages
227-234
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
9513710
PMCID
PMC6454545
Subset
IM
Grants
NICHD NIH HHS · R03 HD062471 · United States
NICHD NIH HHS · R01 HD070038 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/molehr/gaw039 PMC Full Text View journal details
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