Optics and microsystems for in vitro fertilization

There are various difficulties which reduce the percentage of success in human in vitro fertilization (IVF). One of them concerns the choice of the oocyte to be fertilized. Up to now, the selection of the mature cell to be employed essentially relies on subjective criteria. Most biologists visually estimate the morphological properties of the oocyte. Some of the microsystems we are currently developing in our laboratory propose a solution to the objective determination of some of the oocyte properties, with the ulterior motive of grouping the microsystems in a single Lab-On-Chip (LOC). In this paper, we present these microsystems or techniques (microfluidic platform, microoptics, micromechanics, and image processing) together with the first experimental results that have been achieved. To conclude, we would like to say that the systems we describe are unique and that the results we have obtained up to now cannot be achieved using any other IVF techniques. Also, these studies have been approved by the local ethics committee.