Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Microfluidics and Microanalytics to Facilitate Quantitative Assessment of Human Embryo Physiology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
In Vitro Fertilization

Abstract

Morphological assessment of the human preimplantation embryo has been used for 40 years to try to quantitate developmental potential. Although certain traits of embryo development appear linked to viability, the assessment of morphology alone remains subjective and hard to quantitate. Metabolic activity of embryos has been linked to viability post transfer. Glucose uptake on days 4 and 5 of human development is positively correlated with pregnancy outcome. However, nutrient analysis of small volumes of culture media remains technically demanding and limited to a few laboratories worldwide. With the advent of microfluidics, it has been possible to develop laboratory-on-a-chip devices which can accurately quantitate metabolite levels in culture media. Further, new microscopies, such as hyperspectral and FLIM, can quantitate the endogenous fluorescence of embryos, which in turn is related to their metabolic functions. The future of human IVF could therefore include the use of one or more of these technologies, which can readily be used in parallel with novel time-lapse analysis systems to create a wealth of information from each embryo.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Adashi EY, Barri PN, Berkowitz R, Braude P, Bryan E, Carr J, et al. Infertility therapy-associated multiple pregnancies (births): an ongoing epidemic. Reprod Biomed Online. 2003;7:515–42.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gardner DK, Lane M. Culture and selection of viable blastocysts: a feasible proposition for human IVF? Hum Reprod Update. 1997;3:367–82.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gardner DK, Meseguer M, Rubio C, Treff NR. Diagnosis of human preimplantation embryo viability. Hum Reprod Update. 2015;21:727–47.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gardner DK, Balaban B. Assessment of human embryo development using morphological criteria in an era of time-lapse, algorithms and ‘OMICS’: is looking good still important? Mol Hum Reprod. 2016;22:704–18.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Wong CC, Loewke KE, Bossert NL, Behr B, De Jonge CJ, Baer TM, et al. Non-invasive imaging of human embryos before embryonic genome activation predicts development to the blastocyst stage. Nat Biotechnol. 2010;28:1115–21.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Meseguer M, Herrero J, Tejera A, Hilligsoe KM, Ramsing NB, Remohi J. The use of morphokinetics as a predictor of embryo implantation. Hum Reprod. 2011;26:2658–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu Y, Chapple V, Feenan K, Roberts P, Matson P. Time-lapse deselection model for human day 3 in vitro fertilization embryos: the combination of qualitative and quantitative measures of embryo growth. Fertil Steril. 2016;105:656–62 e1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Petersen B, Boel M, Montag M, Gardner DK. Development of a generally applicable morphokinetic algorithm capable of predicting the implantation potential of embryos transferred on Day 3. Hum Reprod. 2016;31:2231–44.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Gardner DK, Wale PL. Analysis of metabolism to select viable human embryos for transfer. Fertil Steril. 2013;99:1062–72.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Leese HJ. Metabolism of the preimplantation embryo: 40 years on. Reproduction. 2012;143:417–27.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Gardner DK, Harvey AJ. Blastocyst metabolism. Reprod Fertil Dev. 2015;27:638–54.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Gardner DK. Lactate production by the mammalian blastocyst: manipulating the microenvironment for uterine implantation and invasion? BioEssays. 2015;37:364–71.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Leese HJ. History of oocyte and embryo metabolism. Reprod Fertil Dev. 2015;27:567–71.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Renard JP, Philippon A, Menezo Y. In-vitro uptake of glucose by bovine blastocysts. J Reprod Fertil. 1980;58:161–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Gardner DK, Leese HJ. Assessment of embryo viability prior to transfer by the noninvasive measurement of glucose uptake. J Exp Zool. 1987;242:103–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Lane M, Gardner DK. Selection of viable mouse blastocysts prior to transfer using a metabolic criterion. Hum Reprod. 1996;11:1975–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Gardner DK, Wale PL, Collins R, Lane M. Glucose consumption of single post-compaction human embryos is predictive of embryo sex and live birth outcome. Hum Reprod. 2011;26:1981–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Leese HJ, Biggers JD, Mroz EA, Lechene C. Nucleotides in a single mammalian ovum or preimplantation embryo. Anal Biochem. 1984;140:443–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Botros L, Sakkas D, Seli E. Metabolomics and its application for non-invasive embryo assessment in IVF. Mol Hum Reprod. 2008;14:679–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Seli E, Sakkas D, Scott R, Kwok SC, Rosendahl SM, Burns DH. Noninvasive metabolomic profiling of embryo culture media using Raman and near-infrared spectroscopy correlates with reproductive potential of embryos in women undergoing in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril. 2007;88:1350–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Seli E, Bruce C, Botros L, Henson M, Roos P, Judge K, et al. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of day 5 morphology grading and metabolomic Viability Score on predicting implantation outcome. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2011;28:137–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Hardarson T, Ahlstrom A, Rogberg L, Botros L, Hillensjo T, Westlander G, et al. Non-invasive metabolomic profiling of Day 2 and 5 embryo culture medium: a prospective randomized trial. Hum Reprod. 2012;27:89–96.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Krisher RL, Heuberger AL, Paczkowski M, Stevens J, Pospisil C, Prather RS, et al. Applying metabolomic analyses to the practice of embryology: physiology, development and assisted reproductive technology. Reprod Fertil Dev. 2015;27:602–20.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Oh SJ, Gong SP, Lee ST, Lee EJ, Lim JM. Light intensity and wavelength during embryo manipulation are important factors for maintaining viability of preimplantation embryos in vitro. Fertil Steril. 2007;88:1150–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Squirrell JM, Wokosin DL, White JG, Bavister BD. Long-term two-photon fluorescence imaging of mammalian embryos without compromising viability. Nat Biotechnol. 1999;17:763–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Dumollard R, Hammar K, Porterfield M, Smith PJ, Cibert C, Rouviere C, et al. Mitochondrial respiration and Ca2+ waves are linked during fertilization and meiosis completion. Development. 2003;130:683–92.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Sutton-McDowall ML, Purdey M, Brown HM, Abell AD, Mottershead DG, Cetica PD, et al. Redox and anti-oxidant state within cattle oocytes following in vitro maturation with bone morphogenetic protein 15 and follicle stimulating hormone. Mol Reprod Dev. 2015;82:281–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Cinco R, Digman MA, Gratton E, Luderer U. Spatial characterization of bioenergetics and metabolism of primordial to preovulatory follicles in whole ex vivo murine ovary. Biol Reprod. 2016;95:129.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Gosnell ME, Anwer AG, Mahbub SB, Menon Perinchery S, Inglis DW, Adhikary PP, et al. Quantitative non-invasive cell characterisation and discrimination based on multispectral autofluorescence features. Sci Rep. 2016;6:23453.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Sutton-McDowall ML, Gosnell M, Anwer AG, White M, Purdey M, Abell AD, et al. Hyperspectral microscopy can detect metabolic heterogeneity within bovine post-compaction embryos incubated under two oxygen concentrations (7% versus 20%). Hum Reprod. 2017;32:2016–25.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Gardner DK. Mammalian embryo culture in the absence of serum or somatic cell support. Cell Biol Int. 1994;18:1163–79.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Urbanski JP, Johnson MT, Craig DD, Potter DL, Gardner DK, Thorsen T. Noninvasive metabolic profiling using microfluidics for analysis of single preimplantation embryos. Anal Chem. 2008;80:6500–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Heo YS, Cabrera LM, Bormann CL, Smith GD, Takayama S. Real time culture and analysis of embryo metabolism using a microfluidic device with deformation based actuation. Lab Chip. 2012;12:2240–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Roman GT, Kennedy RT. Fully integrated microfluidic separations systems for biochemical analysis. J Chromatogr A. 2007;1168:170–88.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Liu P, Mathies RA. Integrated microfluidic systems for high-performance genetic analysis. Trends Biotechnol. 2009;27:572–81.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. West J, Becker M, Tombrink S, Manz A. Micro total analysis systems: latest achievements. Anal Chem. 2008;80:4403–19.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Kraly JR, Holcomb RE, Guan Q, Henry CS. Review: microfluidic applications in metabolomics and metabolic profiling. Anal Chim Acta. 2009;653:23–35.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Cui XQ, Lee LM, Heng X, Zhong WW, Sternberg PW, Psaltis D, et al. Lensless high-resolution on-chip optofluidic microscopes for Caenorhabditis elegans and cell imaging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105:10670–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Szekely L, Guttman A. New advances in microchip fabrication for electrochromatography. Electrophoresis. 2005;26:4590–604.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Weibel DB, Diluzio WR, Whitesides GM. Microfabrication meets microbiology. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2007;5:209–18.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Wang JD, Douville NJ, Takayama S, Elsayed M. Quantitative analysis of molecular absorption into PDMS microfluidic channels. Ann Biomed Eng. 2012;40:1862–73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Regehr KJ, Domenech M, Koepsel JT, Carver KC, Ellison-Zelski SJ, Murphy WL, et al. Biological implications of polydimethylsiloxane-based microfluidic cell culture. Lab Chip. 2009;9:2132–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Wilson GS, Gifford R. Biosensors for real-time in vivo measurements. Biosens Bioelectron. 2005;20:2388–403.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Rocha JC, Passalia FJ, Matos FD, Takahashi MB, Ciniciato DS, Maserati MP, et al. A method based on artificial intelligence to fully automatize the evaluation of bovine blastocyst images. Sci Rep. 2017;7:7659.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Tan TC, Ritter LJ, Whitty A, Fernandez RC, Moran LJ, Robertson SA, et al. Gray level Co-occurrence Matrices (GLCM) to assess microstructural and textural changes in pre-implantation embryos. Mol Reprod Dev. 2016;83:701–13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Milewski R, Kuczynska A, Stankiewicz B, Kuczynski W. How much information about embryo implantation potential is included in morphokinetic data? A prediction model based on artificial neural networks and principal component analysis. Adv Med Sci. 2017;62:202–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Reineck P, Gibson BC. Near-Infrared fluorescent nanomaterials for bioimaging and sensing. Adv Optical Mater. 2017;5:1600446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Purdey MS, Thompson JG, Monro TM, Abell AD, Schartner EP. A dual sensor for pH and hydrogen peroxide using polymer-coated optical fibre tips. Sensors. 2015;15:31904–13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Shang L, Nienhaus K, Nienhaus GU. Engineered nanoparticles interacting with cells: size matters. J Nanobiotechnol. 2014;12:5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Anselmo AC, Mitragotri S. Nanoparticles in the clinic. Bioeng Transl Med. 2016;1:10–29.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  51. Feugang JM, Youngblood RC, Greene JM, Willard ST, Ryan PL. Self-illuminating quantum dots for non-invasive bioluminescence imaging of mammalian gametes. J Nanobiotechnol. 2015;13:38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Taylor U, Garrels W, Barchanski A, Peterson S, Sajti L, Lucas-Hahn A, et al. Injection of ligand-free gold and silver nanoparticles into murine embryos does not impact pre-implantation development. Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2014;5:677–88.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Smith GD, Takayama S, Swain JE. Rethinking in vitro embryo culture: new developments in culture platforms and potential to improve assisted reproductive technologies. Biol Reprod. 2012;86:62.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Thompson JG, Brown HM, Sutton-McDowall ML. Measuring embryo metabolism to predict embryo quality. Reprod Fertil Dev. 2016;28:41–50.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Ramanujam N. Fluorescence spectroscopy of neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissues. Neoplasia. 2000;2:89–117.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  56. Ferrick L, Lee YSL, Gardner DK. Reducing time to pregnancy and facilitating the birth of healthy children through functional analysis of embryo physiology. Biol Reprod. 2019; PMID: 30649216.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    David K. Gardner

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Philipp Reineck & Brant C. Gibson

  3. ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), The Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Jeremy G. Thompson

Authors
  1. David K. Gardner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Philipp Reineck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Brant C. Gibson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jeremy G. Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David K. Gardner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Reproductive Biology Associates – Prelude, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Zsolt Peter Nagy

  2. Astra Fertility Group, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Alex C. Varghese

  3. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

Review Questions

Review Questions

  1. 1.

    What are the limitations of morphological assessment?

  2. 2.

    Which nutrients are related to embryo viability?

  3. 3.

    What is laboratory-on-a-chip?

  4. 4.

    What types of novel microscopies offer potential means of assessing embryo physiology?

  5. 5.

    Are the technologies now ready for automated embryo culture and analysis?

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gardner, D.K., Reineck, P., Gibson, B.C., Thompson, J.G. (2019). Microfluidics and Microanalytics to Facilitate Quantitative Assessment of Human Embryo Physiology. In: Nagy, Z., Varghese, A., Agarwal, A. (eds) In Vitro Fertilization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43011-9_45

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43011-9_45

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43010-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43011-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation