Journal
SMALL
Volume 16, Issue 24, Pages -Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202000213
Keywords
biohybrid micromotors; micromotors in body fluids; micromotors in high viscosity; microrheology; sperm-driven micromotors
Categories
Funding
- German Research Foundation [SPP 1726]
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union [835268, 853609]
- Leibniz Program of the German Research Foundation [SCHM 1298/26-1]
- European Research Council (ERC) [835268, 853609] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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Biohybrid micromotors propelled by motile cells are fascinating entities for autonomous biomedical operations on the microscale. Their operation under physiological conditions, including highly viscous environments, is an essential prerequisite to be translated to in vivo settings. In this work, a sperm-driven microswimmer, referred to as a spermbot, is demonstrated to operate in oviduct fluid in vitro. The viscoelastic properties of bovine oviduct fluid (BOF), one of the fluids that sperm cells encounter on their way to the oocyte, are first characterized using passive microrheology. This allows to design an artificial oviduct fluid to match the rheological properties of oviduct fluid for further experiments. Sperm motion is analyzed and it is confirmed that kinetic parameters match in real and artificial oviduct fluids, respectively. It is demonstrated that sperm cells can efficiently couple to magnetic microtubes and propel them forward in media of different viscosities and in BOF. The flagellar beat pattern of coupled as well as of free sperm cells is investigated, revealing an alteration on the regular flagellar beat, presenting an on-off behavior caused by the additional load of the microtube. Finally, a new microcap design is proposed to improve the overall performance of the spermbot in complex biofluids.
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