莫纳什大学开发的精子注射器为不育夫妇带来新希望

诸平

Figure 1 3D printed microfluidic ‘sperm syringe' for high-quality sperm selection. a) Assembly of a 3D printed sperm syringe and schematic view of the device in the exploded view. The device consists of a 3D printed part with 560 parallel microchannels, a modified 5 mL syringe barrel, a laminate sheet to prevent mixing, a plunger for loading and unloading the sample, and a luer cap. b) Cross-section view of the device and close-up view of the microchannel network. Highly motile sperm are separated from non-motile/dead cells and debris in the raw semen chamber (cylindrical shell) by swimming through the microchannels to reach the selection chamber (central cylinder) where they are collected. c) Percentage vitality and d) percentage of sperm DNA fragmentation (%SDF) of sperm stored in commercially available plastic tubes and 3D printed tubes (made of a surgical guide resin) as a function of time, indicating the biocompatibility of the material and manufacturing process.

Figure 2 A Monash University-developed syringe that uses a 3D filter to detect viable sperm can increase sperm quality selection by 65 per cent, bringing new hope to infertile couples.

据澳大利亚莫纳什大学（Monash University）2022年11月22日报道，该校的研究人员研发的一种使用3D滤光片检测活精子的注射器，可以将精子质量选择提高65%，为不育夫妇带来新的希望（Monash sperm syringe offers new hope to infertile couples）。

世界首创的注射器可在不到15分钟的时间内分离出优质精子，是30年来精子选择技术的最大创新。相关研究结果于2022年3月4日已经在《先进材料技术》（Advanced Materials Technologies）杂志网站发表——Farin Yazdan Parast, Moira K. O'Bryan, Reza Nosrati. Sperm Syringe: 3D Sorting Platform for Assisted Reproduction. Advanced Materials Technologies, 2022, 7 (9): 2101291. DOI: 10.1002/admt.202101291. First published: 04 March 2022. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/admt.202101291

这一突破由莫纳什大学生物工程研究人员团队取得，利用简单的塑料注射器技术，可以轻松批量生产，为全球 1.8 亿受不孕症影响的人带来希望和更便宜的治疗解决方案。

注射器的工作原理是将1.5 mL精液吸入腔室，然后通过 560 个平行微通道（微型圆柱体）网络。优质精子游过微通道进入选择室，在那里它们可以被提取出来，留下质量差的精子。这个过程不到15分钟，并且能够从样本中提取超过41%的健康精子(可以参看视频admt202101291-sup-0003-movies2.mp4)。

使用这种方法，研究人员可以将精子选择的质量提高65%以上。这大大减少了对复杂和侵入性胞浆内单精子注射程序（将单个精子注入卵子）的需要，有利于直接将人工授精注入子宫。

莫纳什大学机械与航空航天工程系(Monash’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)的监督研究员雷扎·诺斯拉蒂（Reza Nosrati）博士表示，这项创新最终将以更低的成本为寻求生育治疗的夫妇带来更高的成功率。

“精子选择是不孕症治疗的重要组成部分，但传统的精子选择临床方法在过去30年里没有改变，”里萨·诺斯拉蒂博士说。由于缺乏技术发展，治疗方法的成功率停滞在每个周期的35%。

“使用精子注射器，我们可以选择DNA完整性和形态（构成）改善超过 65% 的精子，并且由于DNA质量与受精成功直接相关，我们希望改善辅助生殖技术 (assisted reproductive technology简称ART) 的结果。这技术可以帮助标准化和简化生育诊所的精子选择过程。”

这项发表在《先进材料技术》（Advanced Materials Technologies）上的研究由在读博士法林·亚兹丹·帕拉斯特（Farin Yazdan Parast）领导完成，但是法林·亚兹丹·帕拉斯特得到了雷扎·诺斯拉蒂博士和莫伊拉·奥布莱恩（Moira O'Bryan）教授的指导。

法林·亚兹丹·帕拉斯特女士说：“精子注射器为一步精液纯化和精子选择提供了一种高通量设备。3D分选平台通过在3D结构中安排微通道来提供精液样本和选择事件之间的最大接触面积，以实现高度平行和快速分选。由于这种相当高的表面体积比，活跃的精子可以很容易地找到并进入微通道，留下原始样本。这提供了一种有效的选择机制，优于传统的临床方法和其他更新的精子选择技术。”

精子注射器已获得专利，研究人员正在研究如何将该设备商业化以用于生育诊所。还计划进行进一步的临床试验。

这项工作由澳大利亚研究委员会(ARC)发现项目资助{ Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grants (DP190100343 and DP210103361)}

上述介绍，仅供参考。欲了解更多信息，敬请注意浏览原文或者相关报道。

Abstract

Selection of high-quality sperm is crucial to assisted reproduction. However, conventional clinical methods for sperm selection are manual and prone to operator errors. This article presents ‘sperm syringe', a scalable technology that mimics the highly parallelized 3D selection process in vivo via a 3D network of 560 microchannels to select high-quality sperm. Sperm syringe retrieves more than 41% of healthy sperm from the initial sperm sample in under 15 min, providing a sufficient volume (≈500 μL) and number (1,600,000) of high-quality sperm for fertility treatments. Experiments with bull and human sperm indicate 65% improvement in selected sperm morphology and DNA integrity, considerably outperforming the current best clinical practices. This approach enables the selection of a subpopulation of high-quality human sperm from an oligozoospermia sample with DNA integrity below the reference value for fertility. The fabrication method of the device is also simple and scalable, representing a commercially viable technology for translation and clinical adoption. Sperm syringe provides a promising opportunity for clinics to use less invasive assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) over intracytoplasmic sperm injection, thus reducing the associated clinical workload and optimizing long-term health outcomes for ART-conceived children.