Waberski Dagmar, Suarez Susan S, Henning Heiko
Unit for Reproductive Medicine - Clinic for Pigs and Small Ruminants, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Anim Reprod Sci. 2022 Nov;246:106849. doi: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2021.106849. Epub 2021 Sep 11.
Evaluation of sperm motility is well-established in farm animals for quickly selecting ejaculates for semen processing into insemination doses and for evaluating the quality of preserved semen. Likewise, sperm motility is a fundamental parameter used by spermatologists in basic and applied science. Motility is commonly assessed using computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA). Recent increases in computational power, as well as utilization of mobile CASA systems and open-source CASA programs, broaden the possibilities for motility evaluation. Despite this technological progress, the potential of computer-generated motility data to assess male fertility remains challenging and may be limited. Relevance for fertility assessment could be improved if measurement conditions would more closely mimic the in vivo situation. Hence, this review is focused on the current trends of automated semen assessment in livestock and explores perspectives for future use with respect to the physiological and physical conditions encountered by sperm in the female reproductive tract. Validation of current CASA systems with more complex, microfluidic-based devices mimicking the female reproductive tract environment could improve the value of sperm kinematic data for assessing the fertilizing capacity of semen samples, not only for application in livestock but also for use in conducting assisted reproduction techniques in other species.
在农场动物中，评估精子活力已得到广泛应用，可快速筛选用于精液处理制成授精剂量的射精样本，并评估保存精液的质量。同样，精子活力也是基础科学和应用科学领域的精子学家所使用的一个基本参数。通常使用计算机辅助精液分析（CASA）来评估精子活力。近年来，计算能力的提升以及移动CASA系统和开源CASA程序的应用，拓宽了精子活力评估的可能性。尽管取得了这一技术进步，但利用计算机生成的活力数据来评估雄性生育能力仍然具有挑战性，且可能存在局限性。如果测量条件能更紧密地模拟体内情况，那么对生育能力评估的相关性可能会得到改善。因此，本综述聚焦于家畜精液自动评估的当前趋势，并探讨了在考虑精子在雌性生殖道中所遇到的生理和物理条件的情况下，未来使用的前景。使用更复杂的、基于微流体的模拟雌性生殖道环境的设备对当前CASA系统进行验证，可能会提高精子运动学数据在评估精液样本受精能力方面的价值，这不仅适用于家畜，也适用于在其他物种中开展辅助生殖技术。
