Male Infertility and Microchips

Silicon, glass, and polymer microchip devices (lab-on-a-chip) have found a diverse range of analytical and preparative applications (1). Prominent applications include protein and nucleic acid electrophoresis (2), PCR (3, 4), and cellular analysis (5). Microchip devices have also demonstrated promise in semen analysis as part of the evaluation of male infertility. The key parameters of semen analysis are semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and sperm morphology (6). These parameters are usually examined in modern clinical laboratories with a microscope coupled to an image-analysis system (computer-assisted sperm analysis); however, there have been various attempts to automate and/or miniaturize the examination of sperm in the context of microfluidic chips. The most basic fluidic devices have lanes in which the sperm can be observed and compared with respect to their ability to swim. These lanes are in essence fabricated microchannel racetracks (7, 8). More-complex devices not only add architectural complexity to the racetracks but also add electrical components that facilitate sperm counting and motility measurements (e.g., the “fertility chip”) (9).In …