Multifunctional Laser-induced Graphene-based Microfluidic Chip for High-performance Oocyte Cryopreservation with Low Concentration of Cryoprotectants.
Yifang LiJixiang ZhangWei HanBianhua LiuMengjie ZhaiNian LiZhenyang WangJun ZhaoPublished in: Advanced healthcare materials (2024)
Oocyte cryopreservation is essential in the field of assisted reproduction, but due to the large size and poor environmental tolerance of oocytes, cell freezing technology needs further improvement. Here, we ingeniously devised a Y-shaped microfluidic chip based on three-dimensional graphene by combining laser-induced graphene (LIG) technology and fiber etching technology. The prepared LIG/PDMS microfluidic chip can effectively suppress ice crystal size and delay ice crystal freezing time by adjusting surface hydrophobicity. In addition, LIG endows the microfluidic chip with an outstanding photothermal effect, allowing us to sharply increase its surface temperature from 25 °C to 71.8 °C with 10 s of low-power 808 nm laser irradiation (0.4 W/cm 2 ). Notably, the LIG/PDMS microfluidic chip not only replaces the traditional cryopreservation carriers, but also effectively reduces the dosage of cryoprotectants (CPAs) needed in mouse oocyte cryopreservation. Even when the concentration of CPAs is cut in half (final concentration of 7.5% EG and 7.5% DMSO), the survival rate of oocytes is still as high as 92.4%, significantly higher than the control group's 85.8%. Therefore, our work provides a novel design strategy to construct multifunctional microfluidic chips for high-performance oocytes cryopreservation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.