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IRONSperm swimming by rigid-body rotation versus transverse bending waves influenced by cell membrane charge

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Abstract

Cell membrane potential affects the electrostatic self-assembly of magnetizable nanoparticles around the flagellum of sperm cells, leading to the formation of biohybrid microrobots (i.e., IRONSperm) with various bending stiffness. Here we explain the influence of bull sperm cell membrane potential on the formation of two types of IRONSperm samples that are produced by electrostatic self-assembly. The first type is a proximal-coated soft body with nanoparticles concentrated on the head to maintain high flexibility of the flagellum and create a passively propagating transverse bending wave under the influence of an external rotating magnetic field. The second type is a rigid-body with nanoparticles approximately uniformly distributed along the length to provide arbitrary geometry that maintains a constant chiral shape and propel by rotation about its long axis. We present a magneto-elastohydrodynamic model to predict the swimming speed at low Reynolds number for rigid IRONSperm with arbitrary shapes, and show that decreasing the bending stiffness allows the model to capture the behavior of its soft counterpart. While the response of a rigid chiral IRONSperm is distinguished by a greater swimming speed with a smooth decay with frequency, the benefit of a soft flagellum in certain scenarios would present a much smaller range of frequencies for wireless actuation.

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Funding

V. M. acknowledges the La Caixa Foundation (grant 100010434) for funding. This work was supported by the Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, under Grant Crazy-Research-2022.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Baldiri Reixac 10-12, Barcelona, 08028, Catalonia, Spain

    Veronika Magdanz

  2. Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, N2L 7, Ontario, Canada

    Veronika Magdanz

  3. Department of Physics, German University of Cairo, New Cairo, 11835, Egypt

    Anke Klingner

  4. MESA+ Research Institute, University of Twente, Street, Enschede, 7500 AE, The Netherlands

    Leon Abelmann

  5. Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology, 2600 AA, Delft, The Netherlands

    Leon Abelmann

  6. Department of Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, 7500 AE, The Netherlands

    Islam S. M. Khalil

Authors
  1. Veronika Magdanz
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  2. Anke Klingner
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  3. Leon Abelmann
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  4. Islam S. M. Khalil
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Contributions

V.M. conducted the biological study on spermatozoa and magnetically functionalized sperm. AK, LA and IK created the mathematical model of IRONSperm of different bending stiffness. AK, IK and VM prepared the figures. All authors wrote and reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Veronika Magdanz or Islam S. M. Khalil.

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Magdanz, V., Klingner, A., Abelmann, L. et al. IRONSperm swimming by rigid-body rotation versus transverse bending waves influenced by cell membrane charge. J Micro-Bio Robot 18, 49–60 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12213-023-00158-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12213-023-00158-5

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