Using microfluidic sperm sorting chips in patients with infertility

The purpose of the work is to analyze the effectiveness of the FERTILE microfluidic sperm sorting chip. Materials and Methods. The technique under consideration is currently experimental. It was used in patients after obtaining voluntary informed consent. A retrospective analysis of medical records of 4 groups of patients was carried out. The patients were divided into 2 experimental and 2 control groups. In total the authors analyzed 54 medical records. The microfluidic sperm sorting chip (FERTILE/FERTILE PLUS CHIP) are intended for the selection of normal mobile spermatozoids, which can be used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The indicators of preimplantation embryo development in vitro were assessed. Results. Embryological parameters of infertility treatment using ART were analyzed. Key indicators of preimplantation embryo development (fertilization rate, blastocyst development, embryo cryopreservation) were higher in both experimental groups compared to control ones (standard semen processing). Embryos were obtained by fertilization with sperm which undergone microfluidic sorting. Embryo culture suggests a more physiological nature of gamete separation. During standard ejaculate processing centifugation is used to obtain a fraction of active sperm. However, it negatively affects the cytophysiology of male gametes and causes breaks in the DNA chain in the spermatozoid head. Conclusion. The authors observed the improvement in embryological parameters of in vitro embryos, which were obtained by means of microfluidic chip-based sperm selection. This method allows us to select cyto-physiologically competent sperm and improve the embryo quality without increasing DNA fragmentation rate.