Dynamic Embryo Culture on a Digital Microfluidic Chip

Abstract

Embryo culture on a digital microfluidic Chip is presented. The digital microfluidic chip consists of two parallel glass plates with conductive, dielectric, and hydrophobic coatings. ICR mouse embryos are cultivated in the culture media (KSOM + AA) droplets placed in a petri dish for static studies or between the parallel glass plates for dynamic studies. Embryo culture is successful with the conductive ITO, dielectric SU-8 2002, hydrophobic Teflon layers, and surfactant Pluronic F127 used in the digital microfluidic devices. Moreover, the blastocyst rate of the embryos cultivated in encapsulated droplets containing culture media core droplets and appropriate culture oil shells is comparable to that of the embryos cultivated in traditional petri dishes. Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) effectively actuates the investigated encapsulated droplets that will be used for dynamic embryo culture.