The Benefits and Limitations of the Sperm Quality Analyzer IIB in Assessing Porcine Sperm Motility

Sperm quality assessment via separation and sedimentation in a microfluidic device

A major reason for infertility is due to male factors, including the quality of spermatozoa, which is a primary factor and often difficult to assess, particularly the total sperm concentration and its motile percentage. This work presents a simple microfluidic device to assess sperm quality by quantifying both total and motile sperm counts. The key design feature of the microfluidic device is two channels separated by a permeative phase-guide structure, where one channel is filled with raw semen and the other with pure buffer. The semen sample was allowed to reach equilibrium in both chambers, whereas non-motile sperms remained in the original channel, and roughly half of the motile sperms would swim across the phase-guide barrier into the buffer channel. Sperms in each channel agglomerated into pellets after centrifugation, with the corresponding area representing total and motile sperm concentrations. Total sperm concentration up to 10(8) sperms per ml and motile percentage in the range of 10-70% were tested, encompassing the cutoff value of 40% stated by World Health Organization standards. Results from patient samples show compact and robust pellets after centrifugation. Comparison of total sperm concentration between the microfluidic device and the Makler chamber reveal they agree within 5% and show strong correlation, with a coefficient of determination of R(2) = 0.97. Motile sperm count between the microfluidic device and the Makler chamber agrees within 5%, with a coefficient of determination of R(2) = 0.84. Comparison of results from the Makler Chamber, sperm quality analyzer, and the microfluidic device revealed that results from the microfluidic device agree well with the Makler chamber. The sperm microfluidic chip analyzes both total and motile sperm concentrations in one spin, is accurate and easy to use, and should enable sperm quality analysis with ease.

The use of a hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test on sperm of the pig (Sus scrofa domesticus), emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas hamadryas), and central rock rat (Zyzomys pedunculatus)

A hypo-osmotic swelling test using TALP-HEPES medium over a range of 50 to 300 mOsm/kg was applied to sperm from domestic and endangered species. Maximal responses of curling of the sperm tails were seen over a range of osmolalities for epididymal sperm from the pig (100 mOsm/kg), hamadryas baboon (range 50-125 mOsm/kg), and central rock rat (range 50-100 mOsm/kg), and the ejaculated sperm from the emu (50 mOsm/kg) and the Asian elephant (range 75-150 mOsm/kg). A solution of TALP-HEPES medium at 100 mOsm/kg would be suitable to obtain the maximal response in this range of mammals tested, though it would need to be diluted to at least 50 mOsm/kg when testing the viability of the emu sperm.