News Releases & Research Results Development of a sperm sorting technique that improves the success rate of in vitro fertilization

The results of collaborative research and development (R&D) led by Researcher Satohiro Nakao, Professor Toru Takeo of the Division of Reproductive Engineering, and Specially Appointed Professor Naomi Nakagata of the Division of Reproductive Biotechnology and Innovation, Kumamoto University Institute of Resource Development and Analysis; Assistant Professor Hitomi Watanabe and Professor Gen Kondoh of Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University; and others.

• Through an examination of various cell sorters and culture fluids for sperm isolation using mouse sperm, the research group determined the optimal conditions for sperm sorting and successfully developed a technique to sort sperm while maintaining their motility using a microfluidic cell sorter.
• They demonstrated that the use of this technique enabled the collection of only fertile sperm (capacitated sperm) from the entire sperm sample and, thus, improved the fertilisation rate of in vitro fertilisation.
• The results of R&D should facilitate the efficient breeding of experimental animals and livestock, and should improve the success rate of in vitro fertilisation in fertility treatment.

This R&D project was conducted with the support of the Research on Development of New Drugs by AMED.

The results of R&D were published online in Scientific Reports, a British scientific journal, on June 1.

Nakao S., et al. Successful selection of mouse sperm with high viability and fertility using microfluidics chip cell sorter Scientific Reports
DOI：10.1038/s41598-020-65931-z