Kricka L J, Faro I, Heyner S, Garside W T, Fitzpatrick G, McKinnon G, Ho J, Wilding P
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 1997 Jun;15(9-10):1443-7. doi: 10.1016/s0731-7085(96)02046-8.
Micromachined devices (microchips) have been designed and tested for a range of clinically important assays. In this study we compare sperm motility determined using disposable glass microchips and a conventional Makler chamber. The 17 x 14 mm glass microchips contained three etched test structures each comprising either duplicate or quadruplicate analytical microchannels. Semen samples with sperm counts ranging from 21 to 78 million sperm per ml and forward progression scores of from 1+ to 3+ were evaluated and swimming times ranging from 360 s (3.3+ progression) to 770 s (1+,2 forward progression) observed in the microchips. Motility determined by the time taken for sperm to swim to the end of a microchannel (100 microns wide x 40 microns deep x 10 mm long) in the microchip correlated with forward progression of the sperm determined by the conventional Makler chamber method. This study demonstrates the feasibility of microchips for sperm motility testing and suggests that this technique would be applicable to the study of other types of motile cells.
微机械装置（微芯片）已针对一系列具有临床重要意义的检测进行了设计和测试。在本研究中，我们比较了使用一次性玻璃微芯片和传统Makler计数板测定的精子活力。17×14毫米的玻璃微芯片包含三个蚀刻测试结构，每个结构包括重复或四倍的分析微通道。对精子浓度为每毫升2100万至7800万个精子且前向运动评分从1+到3+的精液样本进行了评估，并在微芯片中观察到游泳时间从360秒（3.3+级前向运动）到770秒（1+、2级前向运动）不等。通过精子游至微芯片中微通道（宽100微米×深40微米×长10毫米）末端所需时间确定的活力，与通过传统Makler计数板方法确定的精子前向运动相关。本研究证明了微芯片用于精子活力检测的可行性，并表明该技术将适用于其他类型运动细胞的研究。
