Disposable paper-based microfluidics for fertility testing

Misagh Rezapour Sarabi; Defne Yigci; M Munzer Alseed; Begum Aydogan Mathyk; Baris Ata; Cihan Halicigil; Savas Tasoglu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104986

Disposable paper-based microfluidics for fertility testing

iScience. 2022 Aug 18;25(9):104986. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104986. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Misagh Rezapour Sarabi¹, Defne Yigci², M Munzer Alseed³, Begum Aydogan Mathyk⁴, Baris Ata^{2

5}, Cihan Halicigil⁶, Savas Tasoglu^{1

3

7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34450.
² School of Medicine, Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34450.
³ Boğaziçi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34684.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, HCA Healthcare, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine GME, Brandon Regional Hospital, Florida 33511, USA.
⁵ ART Fertility Clinics, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 337-1500.
⁶ Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, Connecticut 06520, USA.
⁷ Koç University Translational Medicine Research Center (KUTTAM), Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34450.
⁸ Koç University Arçelik Research Center for Creative Industries (KUAR), Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34450.
⁹ Koç University Is Bank Artificial Intelligence Lab (KUIS AI Lab), Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye 34450.

Abstract

Fifteen percent of couples of reproductive age suffer from infertility globally and the burden of infertility disproportionately impacts residents of developing countries. Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), have been successful in overcoming various reasons for infertility including borderline and severe male factor infertility which consists of 20%-30% of all infertile cases. Approximately half of male infertility cases stem from suboptimal sperm parameters. Therefore, healthy/normal sperm enrichment and sorting remains crucial in advancing reproductive medicine. Microfluidic technologies have emerged as promising tools to develop in-home rapid fertility tests and point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tools. Here, we review advancements in fabrication methods for paper-based microfluidic devices and their emerging fertility testing applications assessing sperm concentration, sperm motility, sperm DNA analysis, and other sperm functionalities, and provide a glimpse into future directions for paper-based fertility microfluidic systems.

Keywords: Biodevices; Biotechnology; Medical device in health technology.

Publication types

Review