Abstract
The zebrafish sperm activation profoundly depends upon the homogeneous mixing of the sperm cells with its diluent in a quick succession as it alters the cell’s extracellular medium and initiates their motility. Manual stirring, the traditional method for zebrafish sperm activation is tedious, time-consuming, and has a poor outcome. In this aspect, an artificial cilia embedded serpentine microfluidic is designed through which hydrodynamic factors of the microfluidic environment can be precisely regulated to harness uniform mixing, hence ensuring a superior sperm activation. To quantify the sperm motility, computer assisted sperm analysis software (CASA) was used whereas to quantify the generated flow field, micro particle image velocimetry (μPIV) was used. With this proposed microfluidic, 74.4% of the zebrafish sperm were activated which is 20% higher than its currently existing manual measurements. The μPIV analysis demonstrates that the curvature of the microchannel induces an orbital rotation to the flow field along the length of the microchannel together with the artificial cilia actuation which instigates a local rotation to the flow field of the artificial cilia location. The collective rotation in the whole flow field induce vorticity that promotes the change in temporal dynamics of the sperm cells towards their activation.
Highlights
Zebrafish is considered as an invaluable animal model because of its experimental friendly attributes
For an efficient and high throughput zebrafish sperm activation, the microfluidic device needs to be designed in such a way that the hydrodynamic factors on the sperm cells can be precisely controlled
Combing this generated global rotation of the flow field with local fluid rotation induced through the self-axis revolution of artificial cilia, a superior mixing can be achieved within the microfluidic device
Summary
Zebrafish is considered as an invaluable animal model because of its experimental friendly attributes. In an environment of low Re-number, where viscous force dominates over the inertial force, it has always been a challenge to attune superior mixing in a shorter microchannel length In this aspect, both passive[11,12] and active[13] micromixers have been employed towards sperm cell activation. Considering the buoyant nature and short life span of the zebrafish sperm, uniform yet in-plane mixing profile is desired within the microfluidics in a very short time period[17] To address these aforementioned matters of interest, an artificial cilia embedded serpentine microfluidic device was designed in this work. Combing this generated global rotation of the flow field with local fluid rotation induced through the self-axis revolution of artificial cilia, a superior mixing can be achieved within the microfluidic device This enhanced micromixing phenomenon will expeditiously alter the temporal dynamics of the sperm cells and initiate their motility
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