ABSTRACT
Sperm cryopreservation is important for many individuals across the globe. Recent studies show that vitrification is a valuable approach for maintaining sperm quality after freeze-thawing processes and requires sub-microliter to microliter volumes. A major challenge for the adoption of vitrification in fertility laboratories is the ability to pipette small volumes of sample. Here, we present an open droplet generator that leverages open-channel microfluidics to passively generate sub-microliter to microliter volumes of purified human sperm samples and preserves sperm kinematics. We conclude that our platform is compatible with human sperm, an important foundation for future implementation of vitrification in fertility laboratories.
Competing Interest Statement
T.M.N., J.W.K., U.N.L., E.B., and A.B.T. filed patent Open Mi-crofluidic Channel Design for Passive Droplet Formation and Manipulation May 23, 2022 through the University of Washington. A.B.T. and U.N.L. report filing multiple patents through the University of Washington and A.B.T. received a gift to support research outside the submitted work from Ionis Pharmaceuticals. E.B. is an inventor on multiple patents filed by Tasso, Inc., the University of Washington, and the Univer-sity of Wisconsin-Madison. T.M.N. has ownership in Tasso, Inc.; E.B. has ownership in Tasso, Inc., Salus Discovery, LLC, and Seabright, LLC and is employed by Tasso, Inc.; and A.B.T. has ownership in Seabright, LLC; however, this research is not related to these companies. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by the University of Washington in accordance with its policies governing outside work and financial conflicts of interest in research. The other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-ence the work reported in this paper.
Footnotes
Minor revisions to results and discussion text.
