Infertility is a common medical condition encountered by health systems throughout the world. Despite the development of complex in vitro fertilization techniques, only one-third of these procedures are successful. New lab-on-a-chip systems that focus on spermatozoa selection require a better understanding of sperm behavior under ultra-confined conditions in order to improve outcomes. Experimental studies combined with models and simulations allow the evaluation of the efficiency of different lab-on-a-chip devices during the design process. In this work, we provide experimental evidence of the dynamics of sperm interacting with a lateral wall in a shallow chamber. We observe a decrease in average sperm velocity during initial wall interaction and partial recovery after the alignment of the trajectory of the cell. To describe this phenomenon, we propose a simple model for the sperm alignment process with a single free parameter. By incorporating experimental motility characterization into the model, we achieve an accurate description of the average velocity behavior of the sperm population close to walls. These results will contribute to the design of more efficient lab-on-a-chip devices for the treatment of human infertility.

中文翻译：

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撞墙：在超密闭条件下人类精子的速度恢复。

不孕症是全世界卫生系统普遍遇到的医疗状况。尽管开发了复杂的体外受精技术，但这些程序中只有三分之一成功。专注于精子选择的新的芯片实验室系统需要更好地了解超限条件下的精子行为，以改善结果。实验研究与模型和仿真相结合，可以在设计过程中评估不同的片上实验室设备的效率。在这项工作中，我们提供了精子与浅室侧壁相互作用的动力学的实验证据。我们观察到，在初始壁相互作用和细胞轨迹对齐后部分恢复期间，平均精子速度下降。为了描述这种现象，我们提出了一个带有单个自由参数的精子排列过程的简单模型。通过将实验性运动特征纳入模型中，我们获得了接近壁的精子群体的平均速度行为的准确描述。这些结果将有助于设计用于治疗人类不育症的更有效的芯片实验室设备。