MACS (Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting)
MACS a New generation best quality sperm selection system it separated the best functional healthy sperms to improve pregnancy rate.
A good genetically robust sperm is essential for a normal embryo development. Sperms with high level of DNA fragmentation can damage the embryo development (blastocyst arrest) & can cause early miscarriage.
DNA damage represented by fragmentation & subsequent sperm Death (Sperm apoptosis) may be a cause of male infertility that standard test cannot identify.
Sperm DNA damage major cause is Oxidative stress (an imbalance between the production of free radicals & the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.) Oxidative stress is increased by below factors;
- Increasing Age
- Inflammatory infections
- Cigarette smoking (nicotine)
- Illegal drugs
- Exposure to High pollution
- Elevated testicular temperature.
Thus MACS system is used to selectively remove these defective sperms ( morphologically impossible to separate).
The procedure uses advance magnetic labelling for defective sperms, when the semen sample is passed through the a isolated advance magnetic column the bad/defective sperms are separated from the good/healthy sperms & these good sperms are later used for ICSI or Freezing (Cryopreservation)