Sperm preparation is a necessary step in all methods of assisted reproductive technology. Here, we demonstrate the utility of a microfluidic spiral channel device for preparation of sperm for intrauterine insemination (IUI) directly from semen samples. After optimization of operating conditions, we use data from 130 washed semen samples to show that the microfluidic chip can retain 89% of all sperm cells and 90% of motile sperm cells, while removing 40% of the fluid volume and 82% of white blood cells. Then, we show that, when combined with a centrifugal wash, the microfluidic chip can be used in a protocol for sperm preparation. This protocol is capable of selecting 40–70% of motile sperm in 15 min. Compared to the clinical gold standard, density gradient centrifugation, this offers a higher sperm recovery, a gentler approach, and reduced reagent costs.

精子准备是所有辅助生殖技术方法中必不可少的步骤。在这里，我们展示了一种微流控螺旋通道设备从精液样品中直接制备用于子宫内授精（IUI）的精子的实用性。在优化操作条件之后，我们使用来自130个洗过的精液样本的数据显示，微流控芯片可以保留所有精子细胞的89％和活动精子细胞的90％，同时去除40％的液体量和82％的白血球细胞。然后，我们表明，当与离心洗涤结合使用时，微流控芯片可用于制备精子的方案中。该协议能够在15分钟内选择40-70％的运动精子。与临床金标准密度梯度离心相比，精子回收率更高，方法更温和，