Chemotaxis-driven separation of motile sperm by longitudinal chemical concentration gradient in microchip

Abstract

In this study, we present a new microchip which can separate motile sperm by chemotaxis resulting from longitudinal chemical concerntration gradient in microchannel. In the fluorescent experiment, we verified that good linear concentration gradient was generated in the microchannel without the fluid control device. We performed the experiment of mouse sperm separation by chemotaxis with acetylcoline, chemoattractant, diluted in ratio of 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 and control (DI water) in microchip. As a result, we could separated progressive motile sperm in the specific concentration range of chemoattractant and the optimal concentration range to induce chemotaxis was 0.625~2.5 mg/ml. © 2007 CBMS.