Exhaustion of racing sperm in nature-mimicking microfluidic channels during sorting
Savas Tasoglu, Hooman Safaee, Xiaohui Zhang, James L Kingsley, Paolo N Catalano, Umut Atakan Gurkan, Aida Nureddin, Emre Kayaalp, Raymond M Anchan, Richard L Maas, Erkan Tüzel, Utkan Demirci, Savas Tasoglu, Hooman Safaee, Xiaohui Zhang, James L Kingsley, Paolo N Catalano, Umut Atakan Gurkan, Aida Nureddin, Emre Kayaalp, Raymond M Anchan, Richard L Maas, Erkan Tüzel, Utkan Demirci
Abstract
Fertilization is central to the survival and propagation of a species, however, the precise mechanisms that regulate the sperm's journey to the egg are not well understood. In nature, the sperm has to swim through the cervical mucus, akin to a microfluidic channel. Inspired by this, a simple, cost-effective microfluidic channel is designed on the same scale. The experimental results are supported by a computational model incorporating the exhaustion time of sperm.
Keywords: biodesign; fertility; microfluidic sorting; sperm exhaustion; sperm sorting.
Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
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Source: PubMed