HOME FERTILITY TEST FOR SPERM COUNT

NOW, A HOME FERTILITY TEST FOR SPERM COUNT

At present, the male fertility test in a laboratory is a lengthy process in which  ejaculation is submitted within an  hour and a manual count is done for the spermatozoa concentration analysis

London : Having you ever been curious about your sperm count? If so, a home fertility test could be just the right course, say scientists.

             An international team, led by university of Twente in the Netherlands, developed a home test kit- a 10-centimetre-long 'lab -on-a-chip' Which can well determine male fertility in just seconds.

              At present, the male fertility test in a laboratory is a lengthy, process in which ejaculation is  submitted within an hour-which generally precludes men from producing the sample at home-once submitted, a manual count is done for the spermatozoa concentration analysis.

             "(But ) With our system we overcome these problems" Loes Segerink, Who led the team, was quoted as saying.

            In the kit, the microfluidic chip contains a tiny channel through which spermatozoa are drawn by pressure flow. The sample is first doped with a concentration of polystyrene beads, and as beads and cells are drawn along the channel they pass between two elecrtrodes , altering electrical impedance.

          The chip tallies the electrical perturbations due to the beads and cells, and comparing bead concentration to that of the spermatozoa provides the sperm count, the team says.

          According to Segerink, the chip could take 12 seconds to determine sperm concentration with the same measurement error as a manual count. But while she stresses that the chip would be used as part of 

hospital-run fertility treatment, it could be adapted to produce a cheap and easy to use version for self-diagnosis at home.PTI