受精卵活性評価のためのファイバー化散乱光計測システム

ポリスチレン溶液を用いたモデル実験

抄録

We evaluated the sensitivity and selectivity of the newly designed fiber-optic light-scattering measurement system ¹⁾. We aim to measure the localization of mitochondrial density in an embryo that may have correlation with the embryo's developmental ability⁴⁾. Our goal is to develop a new quantitative and non-invasive selecting method for a single viable human embryo to prevent the multiplity on current in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.
The polystyrene spheres with 1μm in diameter were used to simulate mitochondria. The measurement probes consisted of two fibers for irradiating and sensing which were arranged in a right angle to the microscopic optical axis. We could measure the angular dependence of light-scattering intensity by changing the arrangement of these fibers.
We carried out the light-scattering intensity increased monotonicaly ranging from 10⁶ to 10¹⁰ particles per ml. Since the mitochondrial density in a human embryo corresponded to 2.5×10⁷ per ml in the measurement chamber, we confirmed the possibility of our system for the measurement of the mitochondrial density. The angular dependence of light-scattering intensity changed with a diameter of the spheres. This measurement might realize the selective measurement for the mitochondrial density in the embryo even in the presence of the other cell organelle. Our light-scattering measurement system might be applicable for an evaluation method for embryo viability.