Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing, 100084, China.
Lab Chip. 2010 Nov 7;10(21):2848-54. doi: 10.1039/c005296e. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy is an important treatment for human infertility. However, the methods for clinical IVF have only changed slightly over decades: culture medium is held in oil-covered drops in Petri dishes and manipulation occurs by manual pipetting. Here we report a novel microwell-structured microfluidic device that integrates single oocyte trapping, fertilization and subsequent embryo culture. A microwell array was used to capture and hold individual oocytes during the flow-through process of oocyte and sperm loading, medium substitution and debris cleaning. Different microwell depths were compared by computational modeling and flow washing experiments for their effectiveness in oocyte trapping and debris removal. Fertilization was achieved in the microfluidic devices with similar fertilization rates to standard oil-covered drops in Petri dishes. Embryos could be cultured to blastocyst stages in our devices with developmental status individually monitored and tracked. The results suggest that the microfluidic device may bring several advantages to IVF practices by simplifying oocyte handling and manipulation, allowing rapid and convenient medium changing, and enabling automated tracking of any single embryo development.
体外受精（IVF）疗法是治疗人类不孕不育的重要手段。然而，几十年来，临床 IVF 的方法仅略有改变：培养基保存在覆盖有油的培养皿滴中，并且通过手动移液进行操作。在这里，我们报告了一种新颖的微结构微流控装置，该装置集成了单个卵母细胞的捕获、受精以及随后的胚胎培养。在卵母细胞和精子加载、培养基替代和碎片清洗的流动过程中，使用微井阵列捕获和保持单个卵母细胞。通过计算建模和流动清洗实验比较了不同的微井深度，以评估它们在卵母细胞捕获和碎片去除方面的有效性。在微流控装置中实现了受精，其受精率与标准 Petri 皿中的油覆盖滴相似。胚胎可以在我们的设备中培养到囊胚阶段，并且可以单独监测和跟踪每个胚胎的发育情况。结果表明，微流控装置通过简化卵母细胞处理和操作、允许快速方便地更换培养基以及实现对任何单个胚胎发育的自动跟踪，可能会给 IVF 实践带来一些优势。
