Vol. 41, Issue 2, pp. 417-422 (2011)

Abstract

The popular veterinarian method of qualitative selection of animals oocytes for artificial fertilization is based on morphological aspects of cells. Selection is done by the trained veterinarian specialists observing under a microscope oocytes "flowing" in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) buffer. This is unsatisfactory selection method, one of the weakest points of agriculture breading industry, because it introduces large personal factor and cannot be automated. In this paper, the novel microspectrometry method for quality assessment of pig oocytes isolated from follicles of various size is described. Pig oocytes were successfully classified according to existing classification. We used a specially designed microfluidic chip for measurements. The chip was constructed of glass and silicon with integrated optical fiber. This is the first attempt of the lab-on-a-chip based methodology of quality assessment of oocytes of breeding animals.