A microfluidic approach for synchronous and nondestructive study of the permeability of multiple oocytes

Investigation of oocyte membrane permeability plays a crucial role in fertility preservation,reproductive medicine,and reproductive pharmacology.However,the commonly used methods have disadvantages such as high time consumption,low efficiency,and cumbersome data processing.In addition,the developmental potential of oocytes after measurement has not been fully validated in previous studies.Moreover,oocytes can only maintain their best status in vitro within a very limited time.To address these limitations,we developed a novel multichannel microfluidic chip with newly designed micropillars that provide feasible and repeatable oocyte capture.The osmotic responses of three oocytes at different or the same cryoprotectant(CPA)concentrations were measured simultaneously,which greatly improved the measurement efficiency.Importantly,the CPA concentration dependence of mouse oocyte membrane permeability was found.Moreover,a neural network algorithm was employed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of data processing.Furthermore,analysis of fertilization and embryo transfer after perfusion indicated that the microfluidic approach does not damage the developmental potential of oocytes.In brief,we report a new method based on a multichannel microfluidic chip that enables synchronous and nondestructive measurement of the permeability of multiple oocytes.

Novel DPY19L2 variants in globozoospermic patients and the overcoming this male infertility

Globozoospermia has been reported to be a rare but severe causation of male infertility,which results from the failure of acrosome biogenesis and sperm head shaping.Variants of dpy-19-like 2(DPY19L2)are highly related to globozoospermia,but related investigations have been mainly performed in patients from Western countries.Here,we performed a screening of DPY19L2 variants in a cohort of Chinese globozoospermic patients and found that five of nine patients carried DPY19L2 deletions and the other four patients contained novel DPY19L2 point mutations,as revealed by whole-exome sequencing.Patient 3(P3)contained a heterozygous variant(c.2126+5G>A),P6 contained a homozygous nonsense mutation(c.1720C>T,p.Arg574*),P8 contained compound heterozygous variants(c.H82-1184delATCf p.Leu394_Ser395deIinsPhe;c.368A>T,p.Hisl23Arg),and P9 contained a heterozygous variant(c.H82-1184delATCTTI frameshift).We also reported intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI)outcomes in the related patients,finding that ICSI followed by assisted oocyte activation(AOA)with calcium ionophore achieved high rates of live births.In summary,the infertility of these patients results from DPY19L2 dysfunction and can be treated by ICSI together with AOA.

Homozygous loss-of-function mutations in FSIP2 cause male infertility with asthenoteratospermia

Male infertility, as a major issue of human reproduction health, prevents successful natural conception. Asthenoteratospermia mainly presents one or multiple anomalies in head, neck and tail of spermatozoa, and impairs sperm function and motility (Coutton et al., 2015). Recurrent abnormalities of the fibrous sheath lead to multiple morphological abnormaliries of the sperm flagella (MMAF), which is a quite frequent type of asthenoteratospermia in male infertility (Chemes et al., 1987;Ben Khelifa et al, 2014).