This week, I had starting my internship in the AMBER team (Applied Microfluids for BioEngineering Research) in the university of Twente (Netherlands). My project is to create on oviduct-on-a-chip that means to develop a microfluidic platform to mimic the oviduct epithelium for in vitro fertilization of bivine and/or equine oocytes followed by the embryo culture under in vivo-like conditions. To better understand the projet, I did a lot of bibliography. Firstly I was trying to know how fertilization precisely happens and secondly to understand how to do embryo culture. In this post, I will explain what modifications happens in the oviduct during fertilization. Anatomy and morphology of the oviduct [1]
Sperm's changes [1]Secondly, sperm have to be modified to be able to fertilize. So after ejaculation, sperm are eliminated most in the uterotubal junction to select the best sperm which have the best motility. Then they are bound to the ciliated cells to do the capacitation. This is a physiological events that render sperm able to fertilize. Later sperm detach and acquire a new motility pattern: hyperactivated motility to be able to enter in the oocyte. Before to be hyperactivated, sperm swim straight and vigorously with symmetrical flagellar beating and after sperm swim with high amplitude and asymmetrical beating. Sperm are exposed to different microenvironment and they adapt continuously their pattern motility. Picture2: Illustration of the sperm changes which occurs in the oviduct (from reference [1])Oocyte's and fertilization's changes [1][2]Thirdly, oocyte changes in the oviduct. The oviductal fluid permits the modification of the zona pellucida by molecule. Sperm can fertilize the oocyte more easily. The oocyte create thermal and chemical gradients to guide sperm in the fertilization place. Finally after fertilization, the created embryo requires energy to develop. So the oviductal environment changes during development of the preimplantation embryo. The presence of embryo alters the expression of selected genes in the oviduct. To conclude these articles, help me to understand the importance of exchanges between the oviduct and the sperm and oocyte and after the embryo. I can better imagine what can be the contraintes applied on the oviduct-on-a-chip. So now I have to know what system already exist for embryo culture to help me to design my own platform. References: [1] Coy, P., Garcia-Vazquez, F. and Aviles, M. (2012). Roles of the oviduct in mammalian fertilization. Reproduction, [online] (144), pp.649-660. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028122 [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. [2] Maillo, V., Lopera-Vasquez, R., Hamdi, M., Gutierrez-Adan, A., Lonergan, P. and Rizos, D. (2016). Maternal-embryo interaction in the bovine oviduct: Evidence from in vivo and in vitro studies. Theriogenology, 86(1), pp.443-450.
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