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  • Review Article
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Microfluidics for sperm analysis and selection

Nature Reviews Urology volume 14, pages 707–730 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Sperm swim using periodic but time-irreversible and unidirectional flagellar motion. When sperm swim near a boundary, hydrodynamic sperm–wall interactions result in surface accumulation and boundary-following behaviour

  • Microfluidic techniques paired with high-speed imaging have resolved the full 3D swimming patterns of sperm in bulk fluid and revealed a 2D slither swimming mode for sperm near surfaces

  • Microfluidics show promise in studying sperm rheotaxis and chemotaxis. Future research needs to focus on developing high-throughput platforms with single-cell-analysis capabilities to study human sperm chemotaxis

  • Microfluidic technologies are emerging as rapid and low-cost diagnostic alternatives for at-home and clinical male fertility testing, and technologies for additional, automated morphological analysis of sperm are needed

  • Microfluidic platforms enable selection of high-quality sperm by mimicking the in vivo process. These technologies show promise for near-term advances in both understanding male infertility and clinical implementation

  • Translation of microfluidic technologies for male infertility into the consumer market and clinical practices has been slow. A combination of multidisciplinary collaborations and market opportunity will speed up this process

Abstract

Infertility is a growing global health issue with far-reaching socioeconomic implications. A downward trend in male fertility highlights the acute need for affordable and accessible diagnosis and treatment. Assisted reproductive technologies are effective in treating male infertility, but their success rate has plateaued at ∼33% per cycle. Many emerging opportunities exist for microfluidics — a mature technology in other biomedical areas — in male infertility diagnosis and treatment, and promising microfluidic approaches are under investigation for addressing male infertility. Microfluidic approaches can improve our fundamental understanding of sperm motion, and developments in microfluidic devices that use microfabrication and sperm behaviour can aid semen analysis and sperm selection. Many burgeoning possibilities exist for engineers, biologists, and clinicians to improve current practices for infertility diagnosis and treatment. The most promising avenues have the potential to improve medical practice, moving innovations from research laboratories to clinics and patients in the near future.

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Figure 1: Male infertility and assisted reproduction globally.
Figure 2: Sperm locomotion.
Figure 3: Sperm motion near surfaces.
Figure 4: Sperm motion mediated by viscosity and rheotaxis.
Figure 5: Sperm chemotaxis.
Figure 6: Microfluidics for semen analysis.
Figure 7: Microfluidics for sperm selection.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC I2IPJ469164-14, NSERC RGPIN-2015-06701), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR 139088), the Ontario Centres of Excellence (169411), and MaRS Innovation. The authors also gratefully acknowledge an NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (DS), the Canada Research Chairs Program (DS), an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship (RN), and a Queen's University postdoctoral fund (RN).

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  1. Reza Nosrati and Percival J. Graham: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, 19 Division Street, Kingston, K7L 3N6, Ontario, Canada

    Reza Nosrati & Carlos Escobedo

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, M5S 3G8, Ontario, Canada

    Reza Nosrati, Percival J. Graham, Biao Zhang, Jason Riordon & David Sinton

  3. Hannam Fertility Centre, 160 Bloor St. East, Toronto, M4W 3R2, Ontario, Canada

    Alexander Lagunov & Thomas G. Hannam

  4. Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, M5G 1X5, Ontario, Canada

    Keith Jarvi

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R.N., P.J.G., B.Z. and J.R. researched data for and wrote the article. All authors made substantial contributions to discussion of content and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to David Sinton.

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Nosrati, R., Graham, P., Zhang, B. et al. Microfluidics for sperm analysis and selection. Nat Rev Urol 14, 707–730 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2017.175

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2017.175

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