Strictures of a microchannel impose fierce competition to select for highly motile sperm.

ABSTRACT: Investigating sperm locomotion in the presence of external fluid flow and geometries simulating the female reproductive tract can lead to a better understanding of sperm motion during fertilization. Using a microfluidic device featuring a stricture that simulates the fluid mechanical properties of narrow junctions inside the female reproductive tract, we documented the gate-like role played by the stricture in preventing sperm with motilities below a certain threshold from advancing through the stricture to the other side (i.e., fertilization site). All the slower sperm accumulate below (i.e., in front of) the stricture and swim in a butterfly-shaped path between the channel walls, thus maintaining the potential for penetrating the stricture and ultimately advancing toward the fertilizatio

SUBMITTER: Zaferani M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6374105 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature