Behavior of Motile Sperm in Taylor-Couette Flow: Effect of Shear Stress on the Behavior of Motile Sperm

Yasutaka Hayamizu, Toru Hyakutake, Koji Matsuura, Shinichiro Yanase, Shinichi Morita, Shigeru Ohtsuka, Takeshi Gonda

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonago National College of Technology, Tottori, Japan.
Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan.
Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/ojfd.2013.32A002                

Abstract

Infertility is often cited as one of the causes of a declining birthrate, which has become a serious social problem in recent years. Processes by which motile sperm can be safely and easily sorted are therefore important for infertility treatment. Therefore, as a new sorting method, microfluidic sperm sorter using the microfluidic system has been developed. To improve more separation efficiency of this device, it is necessary to know the behaviors of motile sperm in the microchannel where the sperm undergo shear flow. The previous study implied the necessity of the modeling of motile sperm in the shear flow. In the present study, therefore, we experimentally investigated the behavior of the motile sperm in the Taylor-Couette flow using PTV (Particle Tracking Velocimetry) method. The experimental results showed that the ascent of the shear stress led to the increase in the sperm velocity, and the direction of the sperm velocity was opposite to that of the flow.

Keywords

Motile Sperm; Taylor-Couette Flow; Shear Stress; PTV

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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