TITLE:
Behavior of Motile Sperm in Taylor-Couette Flow: Effect of Shear Stress on the Behavior of Motile Sperm
AUTHORS:
Yasutaka Hayamizu, Toru Hyakutake, Koji Matsuura, Shinichiro Yanase, Shinichi Morita, Shigeru Ohtsuka, Takeshi Gonda
KEYWORDS:
Motile Sperm; Taylor-Couette Flow; Shear Stress; PTV
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Fluid Dynamics,
Vol.3 No.2A,
July
24,
2013
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.