Physiological Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection(PICSI)

Physiological Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection
PICSI is a technique that simulates the natural selection of mature sperm. The principle of this method is the cultivation of mature sperm in a specially treated dish, to which a gel containing hyaluronan is applied. The sperm selected are then used for micro-manipulative fertilisation.
PICSI technique improves pregnancy rates and reduces the number of IVF miscarriages. In the ICSI procedure, an individual sperm is selected and injected into an oocyte. Until now, the only technique available to embryologists to select the sperm has been visual observation. Using PICSI procedure we are able to determine sperm selection in much the same way it happens in human biology. Sperms are placed in PICSI dish containing samples of hyaluronan hydrogel. Hyaluronan is a naturally occurring biopolymer found in all human cells, including the gel layer surrounding the oocyte.

Mature, biochemically competent sperm bind to the hyaluronan where they can be isolated by the embryologist and used for ICSI. This procedure mimics a key step in the natural fertilization process, the binding of mature sperm to the oocyte complex. As a result, the selected sperm is essentially the same as one that would be successful in the natural reproductive process.The research proved that hyaluronan-bound PICSI-selected sperm are, in the vast majority of cases, more mature, exhibit less DNA damage, and have fewer chromosomal aneuploidyes.