IIBYT   23944
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLOGICAS Y TECNOLOGICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Microfluidics for life science: human reproduction
Autor/es:
M. N. GALLEA; H. A. GUIDOBALDI; M. A. BETTERA MARCAT; M.A. CUBILLA; A. J. BANCHIO; G. L. MIÑO; L.C. GIOJALAS; V. I. MARCONI
Lugar:
Rio de Janeiro
Reunión:
Congreso; I Brazil-Argentina Microfluidics Congress / VIII Workshop in Microfluidics; 2018
Institución organizadora:
PUC
Resumen:
Microfluidics is starting to contribute significantly in life science: biology [1], genetic, medicine, neuroscience. Indeed it has already addressed potentials applications in human reproductive medicine. In particular, we havecontributed to reach non-invasive sperm rectifiers [2] and fertility analysis advances for future clinics applications [3].In this work, we present experiments and modelling of human sperm cells under ultra-confinement (see figure below) as a key step to achieve efficient labs on a chip for human assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Our aim is to contribute with the advantages of miniaturization and high-throughput analysis to the design of more economical and efficient micro-devices, since this a social relevant problem at present when 70% of the couples should repeat the ART for a successful pregnancy.We have fabricated several designs of ultra flat micro-devices (h=25um < 𝑜𝑟 ~ flagelar beating amplitude) for controlling cells directioning. Both its efficiency and the sperm motility close to the walls are studied in detail.This is crucial to understand in microfluidics, where surface effects are dominant and not yet well investigated for spermatozoa. We have found originally that under ultra-confinement an important part of the populationrecovers quickly almost 100% of its velocity after arriving to lateral walls in contrast to its behaviour into larger devices. A minimalistic improved model with real parameters obtains very nice agreement between experimentsand theory: the spermatic cells mean velocity and the orientation close to the borders.