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Live motile sperm sorting device for enhanced sperm-fertilization competency: comparative analysis with density-gradient centrifugation and microfluidic sperm sorting

  • Gamete Biology
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

A live motile sperm sorting device (LensHooke® CA0) developed to prevent the deleterious effects of centrifugation was evaluated comparatively with conventional density-gradient centrifugation (DGC) and microfluidic-based device (Zymot) in sperm selection.

Methods

Semen samples from 239 men were collected. CA0 under different incubation intervals (5, 10, 30, and 60 min) and temperatures (20, 25, and 37℃) was conducted. The sperm quality in CA0-, DGC-, and Zymot-processed samples was then comparatively evaluated. Semen parameters included concentration, motility, morphology, motion kinematics, DNA fragmentation index (DFI), and the rate of acrosome-reacted sperm (AR).

Results

Total motility and motile sperm concentration increased in a time- and temperature-dependent manner and the total motility peaked for 30 min at 37℃. In paired analysis, CA0 showed significantly higher total motility (94.0%), progressive motility (90.8%), rapid progressive motility (83.6%), normal morphology (10.3%), and lower DFI (2.4%) and AR (4.7%) than the other two methods in normozoospermic samples (all p < 0.05). For non-normozoospermic samples, CA0 had significantly better results than the other two methods (total motility 89.2%, progressive motility 80.4%, rapid progressive motility 74.2%, normal morphology 8.5%, DFI 4.0%, and AR 4.0%; all p < 0.05).

Conclusion

CA0 yielded spermatozoa with enhanced sperm fertilization potentials; DFI was minimized in samples processed by CA0. CA0 was effective for both normal and abnormal semen samples due to its consistent selection efficiency.

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Data availability

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request made to the corresponding author.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Cheng-Teng Hsu and Chun-I Lee are joint first authors by virtue of their contributions to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research and Development, Bonraybio Co., Ltd, Taichung, Taiwan

    Cheng-Teng Hsu, Fong-Sian Lin, Fang-Zong Wang, Hui-Chen Chang & Tse-En Wang

  2. Division of Infertility Clinic, Lee Women’s Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-I. Lee, Chun-Chia Huang, Hui-Mei Tsao & Maw-Sheng Lee

  3. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-I. Lee & Maw-Sheng Lee

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-I. Lee & Maw-Sheng Lee

  5. Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-I. Lee, Chun-Chia Huang & Maw-Sheng Lee

  6. Global Andrology Forum, American Center for Reproductive Medicine, OH, 44022, Moreland Hills, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

  7. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

  8. Global Andrology Forum, 130 West Juniper Lane, Moreland Hills, OH, 44022, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

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  1. Cheng-Teng Hsu
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Contributions

C.T.H., C.I.L., M.S.L., and A.A. conceptualized the study and designed all the experiments. C.C.H. and H.M.T. collected samples and curated data. F.S.L., F.Z.W., and H.C.C. conducted all the experiments and statistical analyses. T.E.W. drafted and revised the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashok Agarwal.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the local Ethics Committee of Chung Shan Medical University (No. CS2-22039).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest

This study was supported by Bonraybio Co., Ltd. C.T.H. is the owner of Bonraybio Co., Ltd. and F.S.L., F.Z.W., H.C.C., and T.E.W. are employees of Bonraybio Co., Ltd. The employer (C.I.L., C.C.H., and H.M.T.) of Lee Women’s Hospital has collaborated with Bonraybio Co., Ltd. with regard to the IRB approval for providing human samples to complete this collaborative project. A.A. reports no financial support from Bonraybio Co., Ltd. Bonraybio Co., Ltd. reports patent applications “Sperm sorting device and method” licensed in Taiwan (application number: 111110406; 111209204), China (application number: 202210427414.7; 202220949418.7; 202222325590.8), the USA (application no: 17/815,484), and Europe (application no: 22188408.3). The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Hsu, CT., Lee, CI., Lin, FS. et al. Live motile sperm sorting device for enhanced sperm-fertilization competency: comparative analysis with density-gradient centrifugation and microfluidic sperm sorting. J Assist Reprod Genet 40, 1855–1864 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-023-02838-4

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