Wu Tong, Yan Jinfeng, Nie Kebing, Chen Ying, Wu Yangyang, Wang Shixuan, Zhang Jinjin
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Key Laboratory of Cancer Invasion and Metastasis (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Invasion and Metastasis, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Theranostics. 2024 Jul 15;14(11):4352-4374. doi: 10.7150/thno.97301. eCollection 2024.
The female reproductive system is essential to women's health, human reproduction and societal well-being. However, the clinical translation of traditional research models is restricted due to the uncertain effects and low efficiency. Emerging evidence shows that microfluidic chips provide valuable platforms for studying the female reproductive system, while no paper has ever comprehensively discussed the topic. Here, a total of 161 studies out of 14,669 records are identified in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and IEEE Xplore databases. Among these, 61 studies focus on oocytes, which further involves culture, cell surgeries (oocyte separation, rotation, enucleation, and denudation), evaluation and cryopreservation. Forty studies investigate embryo manipulation via microfluidic chips, covering fertilization, cryopreservation and functional evaluation. Forty-six studies reconstitute both the physiological and pathological statuses of organs, mostly involved in placenta and fetal membrane research. Fourteen studies perform drug screening and toxicity testing. In this review, we summarize the current application of microfluidic chips in studying the female reproductive system, the advancements in materials and methods, and discuss the future challenges. The present evidence suggests that microfluidic chips-assisted reproductive system reconstruction is promising and more studies are urgently needed.
女性生殖系统对女性健康、人类繁衍及社会福祉至关重要。然而，传统研究模型的临床转化因效果不确定和效率低下而受到限制。新出现的证据表明，微流控芯片为研究女性生殖系统提供了有价值的平台，但尚无论文全面讨论过该主题。在此，我们在PubMed、Scopus、Web of Science、ScienceDirect和IEEE Xplore数据库中从14,669条记录中共识别出161项研究。其中，61项研究聚焦于卵母细胞，进一步涉及培养、细胞手术（卵母细胞分离、旋转、去核和剥除）、评估及冷冻保存。40项研究通过微流控芯片研究胚胎操作，涵盖受精、冷冻保存和功能评估。46项研究重建了器官的生理和病理状态，主要涉及胎盘和胎膜研究。14项研究进行了药物筛选和毒性测试。在本综述中，我们总结了微流控芯片在研究女性生殖系统方面的当前应用、材料和方法的进展，并讨论了未来的挑战。现有证据表明，微流控芯片辅助的生殖系统重建前景广阔，迫切需要更多研究。
