Today, male factor is the underlying cause of admissions for in vitro fertilization therapy in 40 to 45 percent of cases. Considering physiological conditions, a sperm overcomes many barriers to meet the egg. This function is undertaken by natural vaginal and cervical secretions of woman, called mucus. Since sperms with poor quality and/or motility are eliminated here, only healthy ones can survive until uterine cavity. Winners of this competition are sperms who have capability of fertilizing the egg. Decline in count and motility of sperms rules out the chance of pregnancy through natural routes. For these cases, following method has been used to date: sperms were treated with special washing and sorting processes in laboratory followed by microinjection.

Quality Embryos Can Be Created

Microchip-based in vitro fertilization is a recently developed technique that is a source of hope for many couples. The method was developed by a Turkish scientist in Harvard and it is also used in our country. Selection of sperms and eggs with good quality is very crucial for development of embryo with good quality in in vitro fertilization therapy. Microchip technique uses microfluidics technology to ensure selection of sperms that are more close to nature and has good DNA structure. Since these sperms are used for microinjection, embryos with higher quality can be developed and thus, successful outcomes are obtained.

How is Microchip Applied?

Sperm chips are made of microchannels that help selection of healthy sperms. First, a specially produced solution is infused into these microchannels and next, sperms are injected. As is the case with the physiological process, sperms try to pass through these channels just like their journey in cervix and Fallopian tubes. Unhealthy sperms with damaged DNA get stuck in these channels at the end of half an hour, while healthy and quality sperms with less DNA fragmentation travels through these microchannels and gather at the other side. If these sperms are used for microinjection, quality of embryos and rate of embryos that reach the blastocyst phase on Day 5 are higher.

Currently, there are three microchip methods. The first one is reserved for cases with better sperm counts regarding intrauterine insemination. There are two types of microchips we use to select sperms that are used in microinjection. Preliminary chips required sufficient number of motile sperms, while recent ones allow selection of quality sperms, even if there are too little motile sperms.