Wheeler M B, Walters E M, Beebe D J
Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States.
Theriogenology. 2007 Sep 1;68 Suppl 1:S178-89. doi: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2007.04.042. Epub 2007 May 23.
During the last few decades in vitro production of mammalian embryos and assisted reproductive technologies such as embryo transfer, cryopreservation, and cloning have been used to produce and propagate genetically superior livestock. However, efficiencies of these technologies remain low. For these technologies to become more commercially viable, the efficiencies must improve. Despite this importance of reproduction for the livestock industry, little progress in decreasing embryonic mortality has been made. The livestock industry has succeeded in achieving large increases in average milk production of dairy cattle, growth rate in beef cattle and leanness in swine but reproductive efficiency has actually decreased. For example, research has provided little progress toward developing an objective method to examine viability of a single living embryo. At the same time, the growth of miniaturization technologies beyond integrated circuits and toward small mechanical systems has created opportunities for fresh examination of a wide range of existing problems. While the investigation and application of miniaturization technologies to medicine and biology is progressing rapidly, there has been limited exploration of microfabricated systems in the area of embryo production. Microfluidics is an emerging technology that allows a fresh examination of the way assisted reproduction is performed. Here we review the progress in demonstrating microfluidic systems for in vitro embryo production (IVP) and embryo manipulation. Microfluidic technology could have a dramatic impact on the development of new techniques as well as on our basic understanding of gamete and embryo physiology.
在过去几十年中，哺乳动物胚胎的体外生产以及诸如胚胎移植、冷冻保存和克隆等辅助生殖技术已被用于繁育具有遗传优势的家畜。然而，这些技术的效率仍然很低。为了使这些技术更具商业可行性，必须提高其效率。尽管繁殖对畜牧业至关重要，但在降低胚胎死亡率方面进展甚微。畜牧业已成功大幅提高了奶牛的平均产奶量、肉牛的生长速度和猪的瘦肉率，但繁殖效率实际上却有所下降。例如，在开发一种客观方法来检测单个活胚胎的活力方面，研究进展甚微。与此同时，从集成电路到小型机械系统的微型化技术的发展为重新审视一系列现有问题创造了机会。虽然微型化技术在医学和生物学领域的研究与应用正在迅速推进，但在胚胎生产领域对微制造系统的探索却很有限。微流体技术是一种新兴技术，它使人们能够重新审视辅助生殖的实施方式。在此，我们回顾了在展示用于体外胚胎生产（IVP）和胚胎操作的微流体系统方面所取得的进展。微流体技术可能会对新技术的发展以及我们对配子和胚胎生理学的基本理解产生巨大影响。
