Abstract
A sperm sorter using microfluidic system (MFSS) has been developed to solve sterility caused by abnormality in male sperm. To improve more separation efficiency of this device, it is necessary to know the behavior of motile sperm in detail. Under these backgrounds, the movement of the sperm in the microchannel was investigated in the present study. The previous study clarified that the modeling of the behaviors of motile sperm in the shear flow was necessary. Therefore, in the present study, 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 sperm velocity increased with the ascent of the shear stress and its direction is opposite to that of the flow.
