One of the most significant advancements in science and technology in recent years has been the advancement of in vitro fertilisation to treat infertility. To acquire the best sperm output, a microfluidic technique is implemented for sperm measurement, sperm quality monitoring, and sperm sorting without harming the sperm or causing DNA breakage. The sperm are subsequently used in IUI, IVF, or ICSI procedures. Microfluidics in IVF is particularly effective in circumstances where the semen sample has insufficient semen parameters, as it contributes to the improvement of the results.
Microfluidics is a collaborative study that deals with the behaviour, efficient control, and modulation of fluids that are spatially confined to a very tiny scale on a microfluidic chip with a network of moulded or etched microchannels. It has a wide range of applications. Sperms move through microscopic mucosa microchannels from the cervix to the uterus on their journey to the egg, which works as a biofilter to pick functioning sperm. Microfluidics technology can imitate the female reproductive tract's natural microenvironment. Microfluidics in IVF aids in the screening of "best-in-class" sperm for ICSI.
About 50% of infertility among couples is attributed to male factors. To improve the success rate of ART, it is important to select good-quality sperm to fertilize the oocyte. It is fundamentally challenging to select sperms because of the heterogeneous sperm population of around 10 8 sperms per milliliter with a short in-vitro life span. For the past 50 years of IVF advancement, many improvements have been implemented in various IVF processes.
Male factor infertility is now commonly treated using a technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). It entails inserting a single sperm cell into an egg intravenously. Embryologists, on the other hand, look for the highest-quality sperm for this procedure.
Currently, embryologists choose sperm for in vitro fertilisation (IVF)/ICSI based on their appearance and movement. Although density gradient separation can identify viable sperm, it can also result in excessive DNA fragmentation, which can injure the sperm. The swim-up method distinguishes "excellent swimmers" from the rest of the pack. These and other strategies, however, are not the most efficient ways to select high-quality sperm when sperm counts are low or sperm motility is diminished. Furthermore, with present procedures, outcomes may differ from embryologist to embryologist.
But on the other hand, Microfluidics in IVF is a new technology that is being used in a variety of biological applications to miniaturise and specify laboratory processes. Technology is utilised in conjunction with IVF to improve the outcome by making each step of the process easier. Gametes, culturing embryos, cryopreservation, and a variety of other applications can all benefit from microfluidics. Hence, it is considered more effective, safer and a smarter procedure than others.
Ever since the first IVF in 1978 led to live birth , IVF has changed the way a significant proportion of humans reproduce. During the IVF process, an oil-covered oocyte is placed in a culture dish with sperm cells, allowing sperm to fertilize the oocyte. One of the challenges of clinical IVF is that an egg can be fertilized with multiple sperm, this leads to reduced IVF success rates. Microfluidic platforms can help to reduce the occurrence of polyspermy.
Cryopreservation of human embryos is routinely performed in ART clinics. To avoid multiple pregnancies, not all embryos are transferred during IVF treatment and extra cells are cryopreserved for later use. Embryo cryopreservation is also used to preserve fertility in women at risk for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, in embryo donation programs, and in women awaiting cancer treatment. There are mainly two methods of cryopreservation: slow freezing and vitrification.
Complexity in the field of embryology has made the training of embryologists a very costly and time-consuming affair. Sustaining expertise and competency is also one of the major challenges in most IVF laboratories. In the past few years, there has been a severe shortage of trained embryologists worldwide. Contributing factors include the following: the first generation of trained embryologists are mostly either near or at retirement age.