August 21, 2020

University of Illinois researchers develop sperm imaging technique for cattle

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a novel sperm imaging technique to determine cattle's sperm samples fertility.

This is part of the university's five-year study to developing dairy cattle resistant to heat and diseases, to be raised in tropical areas. Matthew B. Wheeler, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Illinois said these cattle will be donated to developing countries to boost food production.

To develop better heat and disease-resistant cattle, the researchers developed a new imaging approach to find out which cattle sperm samples are best for in-vitro fertilisation. The new development has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Marcello Rubessa, a research assistant professor and part of Wheeler's research team said cattle males may have morphological or DNA issues even if they look perfect. Through this approach, researchers can review the spermatozoa and choose the best in terms of fertility.

Previous imaging sperm sample methods are slow, requires a lot of work, and includes toxic stains. Wheeler's team and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology groyp worked togerher to develop label-free imaging techniques. This was done at Beckman Institute's Quantitative Light Imaging Laboratory (QLIL), to determine fertile sperm parameters.

Mikhail Kandel, a QLIL graduate student said for sperm fertility, the relationship between the head and tail size is important.

Yuchen He, another QLIL graduate student said artificial intelligence was incorporated to automate sperm cell analysation and speed up the process. The researchers hope to better improve the speed in future.

Gabriel Popescu, director of the QLIL and professor in the departments of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering at Illinois said the newly developed phase imaging for sperm is harmless and can be conducted on live cells. While there could be many applications for the new method, the most important sector would be assisted reproduction.

The study was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, the Ross Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Integrated Grants Management System.

-      University of Illinois