Andrology-Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Microfluidic Chips for Male Infertility Patients

Şirin Aydın* and Mehmet Eflatun Deniz

Although Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) was originally considered a promising method for overcoming male factor infertility, its use has been reported to be expanding globally, even in cases of nonmale factor infertility, despite a lack of reliable data demonstrating its benefits. The increasing use of ICSI underscores the importance of improved sperm selection. At the moment, ICSI selection of sperm cells is restricted to motility and morphology under high magnification. Prior to ICSI, it is necessary to generate a pool of spermatozoa that contains the highest quality and competence cells. This increases the likelihood of selecting and injecting superior spermatozoa with superior results. Swim up and density gradient centrifugation are the two current sperm sorting and selection methods used in clinical IVF. Microfluidics is one of the most modern methods for sperm sorting. As compared to conventional sperm sorting methods, Microfluidic Sperm Sorting (MSS) selects sperm that are highly motile and have a low level of DNA fragmentation. We recently published the results of a prospective randomized controlled trial in which we compared the effects of microfluidic sperm selection methods to the traditional swim-up approach in patients with male factor infertility that underwent IVF. The results of this randomized controlled study revealed that the rates of fertilization and the quality of embryos were comparable across the two groups, which was one of the study’s main findings. The study group outperformed the control group in all areas, including live birth and implantation, pregnancy, and clinical pregnancy.

Published Date: 2022-05-31; Received Date: 2022-04-20