Effect of microfluidic processing on the viability of boar and bull spermatozoa

In this study, we evaluate the impact of microfluidic processing on the viability of spermatozoa and compare shear stress in various chip configurations and connection tubing. In contrast to other microfluidic devices for cell analysis, the spermatozoa are still used after processing in our application. During this processing, the semen is exposed to shear stress which might harm the viability and functioning of the spermatozoa. Our results indicate that the impact of microfluidic processing on the viability of boar and bull spermatozoa is less than literature reported for flow cytometry and that it is comparable to the impact of conventional centrifugation