Robotic Manipulation of Cumulus–Oocyte Complexes for Cumulus Cell Removal
Source abstract
Abstract
The removal of cumulus cells from cumulus–oocyte complexes is a critical step in clinical in vitro fertilization. Since the oocyte is partially occluded by the surrounding cumulus cells and individual cumulus cells are small in size, it is difficult for embryologists to assess the oocyte's maturity before cumulus cell removal and to completely remove all the cumulus cells manually . Furthermore, it is easy for the oocyte to become lost inside the micropipette during aspiration due to the inaccuracy of manual control. To deal with these difficulties, a robotic system was developed to completely remove cumulus cells from mature oocytes. In this study, an EPSANet50 network was developed to accurately assess the maturity of oocytes, avoiding the removal of cumulus cells around the immature oocyte. An adaptive controller was designed to accurately position oocytes at the target position, reducing the loss of oocytes inside the micropipette. An improved Yolov5s network was proposed to quantify the number and size of cumulus cells and assess the completeness of cumulus cell removal. The experimental results on mouse cumulus–oocyte complexes showed that the robotic system had a higher success rate (98.0 ± 1.8% vs. 85.3 ± 2.4%) and lower discard rate (4.1 ± 2.7% vs. 19.6 ± 3.5%) than the manual operation. Moreover, a higher amplification rate and lower non-specific rate were also achieved by the robotic system in the subsequent genetic testing procedure, indicating reduced genetic contamination from the cumulus cells.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Reproductive Biology and Fertility · Sperm and Testicular Function
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215031, China
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, China
Funding
National Key Research and Development Program Intelligent Robot Special Project of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · National Key Research and Development Program Basic Research Conditions and Major Scientific Instrument and Equipment Research and Development Special Project of China
References (39)
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