TY - JOUR
T1 - Curvature in the reproductive tract alters sperm–surface interactions
AU - Raveshi, Mohammad Reza
AU - Abdul Halim, Melati S.
AU - Agnihotri, Sagar N.
AU - O’Bryan, Moira K.
AU - Neild, Adrian
AU - Nosrati, Reza
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grants (DP190100343 to R.N. and DP210103361 to A.N. and R.N.) and Monash Interdisciplinary Research Grants to R.N. This work was performed in part at the Melbourne Center for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). We thank D. Jo Merriner for her assistance with the sperm capacitation assay and Farin Yazdan Parast for her help with fluorescent imaging.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/8
Y1 - 2021/6/8
N2 - The fallopian tube is lined with a highly complex folded epithelium surrounding a lumen that progressively narrows. To study the influence of this labyrinthine complexity on sperm behavior, we use droplet microfluidics to create soft curved interfaces over a range of curvatures corresponding to the in vivo environment. We reveal a dynamic response mechanism in sperm, switching from a progressive surface-aligned motility mode at low curvatures (larger droplets), to an aggressive surface-attacking mode at high curvatures (smaller droplets of <50 µm-radius). We show that sperm in the attacking mode swim ~33% slower, spend 1.66-fold longer at the interface and have a 66% lower beating amplitude than in the progressive mode. These findings demonstrate that surface curvature within the fallopian tube alters sperm motion from a faster surface aligned locomotion in distal regions to a prolonged physical contact with the epithelium near the site of fertilization, the latter being known to promote capacitation and fertilization competence.
AB - The fallopian tube is lined with a highly complex folded epithelium surrounding a lumen that progressively narrows. To study the influence of this labyrinthine complexity on sperm behavior, we use droplet microfluidics to create soft curved interfaces over a range of curvatures corresponding to the in vivo environment. We reveal a dynamic response mechanism in sperm, switching from a progressive surface-aligned motility mode at low curvatures (larger droplets), to an aggressive surface-attacking mode at high curvatures (smaller droplets of <50 µm-radius). We show that sperm in the attacking mode swim ~33% slower, spend 1.66-fold longer at the interface and have a 66% lower beating amplitude than in the progressive mode. These findings demonstrate that surface curvature within the fallopian tube alters sperm motion from a faster surface aligned locomotion in distal regions to a prolonged physical contact with the epithelium near the site of fertilization, the latter being known to promote capacitation and fertilization competence.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107600361&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-23773-x
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-23773-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 34103509
AN - SCOPUS:85107600361
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 3446
ER -