{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,1]],"date-time":"2026-03-01T03:29:32Z","timestamp":1772335772637,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,22]],"date-time":"2015-05-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1432252800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"SPS Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research","award":["15K13909"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["15K13909"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Micromachines"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We propose a system that transports oocytes and measures their mechanical characteristics in an open environment using a robot integrated microfluidic chip (chip). The cells are transported through a micropillar array in the chip, and their characteristics are measured by a mechanical probe and a force sensor. Because the chip has an open microchannel, important cells such as oocytes are easily introduced and collected without the risk for losing them. In addition, any bubbles trapped in the chip, which degrade the measurement precision, are easily removed. To transport the oocytes through the open microchannel, we adopt a transportation technique based on a vibration-induced flow. Under this flow, oocytes arrive at the measurement point, where their mechanical characteristics are determined. We demonstrate the introduction, transportation, measurement of mechanical characteristics, and collection of oocytes using this system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mi6050648","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,26]],"date-time":"2015-05-26T04:16:36Z","timestamp":1432613796000},"page":"648-659","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["On-Chip Transportation and Measurement of Mechanical Characteristics of Oocytes in an Open Environment"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Kou","family":"Nakahara","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shinya","family":"Sakuma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Takeshi","family":"Hayakawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2508-1615","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fumihito","family":"Arai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.1109\/TNB.2003.820273","article-title":"Mechanical property characterization of mouse zona pellucida","volume":"2","author":"Sun","year":"2003","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Nanobiosci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"748","DOI":"10.1007\/s10439-006-9081-0","article-title":"Measurement and characterization of whole-cell mechanical behavior","volume":"34","author":"Jaasma","year":"2006","journal-title":"Ann. Biomed. Eng."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"411","DOI":"10.1007\/s10544-007-9150-7","article-title":"Measuring the mechanical behavior of human oocytes with a very simple SU-8 micro-tool","volume":"10","author":"Wacogne","year":"2008","journal-title":"Biomed. Microdevices."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2154","DOI":"10.1039\/c004706f","article-title":"In situ measurement of mechanical characteristics of mouse oocytes using a cell holding device","volume":"10","author":"Liu","year":"2010","journal-title":"Lab Chip"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"687","DOI":"10.1098\/rsif.2009.0380","article-title":"Estimating young\u2019s modulus of zona pellucida by micropipette aspiration in combination with theoretical models of ovum","volume":"7","author":"Khalilian","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. R. Soc. Interface"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1749-0774.2006.00019.x","article-title":"Mouse zona pellucida dynamically changes its elasticity during oocyte maturation, fertilization and early embryo development","volume":"19","author":"Murayama","year":"2006","journal-title":"Hum. Cell"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1177\/0278364905050360","article-title":"Investigating protein structure change in the zona pellucida with a microrobotic system","volume":"24","author":"Sun","year":"2005","journal-title":"Int. J. Robot. Res."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"147","DOI":"10.1016\/S0022-1759(00)00231-3","article-title":"Analysing cell division in vivo and in vitro using flow cytometric measurement of CFSE dye dilusion","volume":"243","author":"Lyons","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. Immunol. Methods"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"645","DOI":"10.1530\/REP-07-0182","article-title":"Assocaiation between human oocyte developmental competence and expression levels of some cumulus genes","volume":"134","author":"Cillo","year":"2007","journal-title":"Reproduction"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1097-0290(19970120)53:2<151::AID-BIT4>3.0.CO;2-N","article-title":"Measurement of local diffusion coefficients in biofilms by microinjection and confocal microscopy","volume":"53","author":"Beer","year":"1997","journal-title":"Biotechnol. Bioeng."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"828","DOI":"10.1002\/1522-2594(200006)43:6<828::AID-MRM8>3.0.CO;2-P","article-title":"Measurement of cell density and necrotic fraction in human melanoma xenografts by diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging","volume":"43","author":"Lyng","year":"2000","journal-title":"Magnet Reson. Med."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"234","DOI":"10.1002\/mrd.1153","article-title":"Consequences of bovine oocyte maturation, fertilization or early embryo development in vitro versus in vivo: Implications for blastocyst yield and blastocyst quality","volume":"61","author":"Rizos","year":"2002","journal-title":"Mol. Reprod. Dev."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1480","DOI":"10.1093\/oxfordjournals.humrep.a019421","article-title":"DNA fragmentation of oocytes in aged mice","volume":"11","author":"Fujino","year":"1996","journal-title":"Hum. Reprod."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1135","DOI":"10.1039\/c3lc51003d","article-title":"Red blood cell fatigue evaluation based on the close-encountering point between extensibility and recoverability","volume":"14","author":"Sakuma","year":"2014","journal-title":"Lab. Chip"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7630","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1200107109","article-title":"Hydrodynamic stretching of single cells for large population mechanical phenotyping","volume":"109","author":"Gossett","year":"2012","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sakuma, S., Turan, B., and Arai, F. (2013, January 3\u20137). High throughput measurement of mechanical characteristics of oocyte using robot integrated microfluidic chip. Proceedings of 2013 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2013.6696630"},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"277","article-title":"Cellular force measurement using a nanometric-probe-integrated microfluidic chip with a displacement reduction mechanism","volume":"25","author":"Sakuma","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. R. M."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1517","DOI":"10.1126\/science.3547653","article-title":"Optical trapping and manipulation of viruses and bacteria","volume":"235","author":"Ashkin","year":"1987","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"769","DOI":"10.1038\/330769a0","article-title":"Optical trapping and manipulation of single cells using infrared laser beams","volume":"330","author":"Ashkin","year":"1987","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"012002","DOI":"10.1063\/1.3056040","article-title":"Ultrafast microfluidics using surface acoustic waves","volume":"3","author":"Yeo","year":"2009","journal-title":"Biomicrofluidics"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3984","DOI":"10.1021\/ac0256235","article-title":"A microfabrication-based dynamic array cytometer","volume":"74","author":"Voldman","year":"2002","journal-title":"Anal. Chem."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"370","DOI":"10.1038\/nature03831","article-title":"Massively parallel manipulation of single cells and microparticles using optical images","volume":"436","author":"Chiou","year":"2005","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"681","DOI":"10.3390\/mi5030681","article-title":"A single cell extraction chip using vibration-induced whirling flow and a thermo-responsive gel pattern","volume":"5","author":"Hayakawa","year":"2014","journal-title":"Micromachines"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sugiura, H., Sakuma, S., Kaneko, M., and Arai, F. (2015, January 26\u201330). On-chip measurement of cellular mechanical properties using moir\u00e9 fringe. Proceedings of 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2015.7139685"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"501","DOI":"10.1007\/s11340-009-9239-4","article-title":"Sampling moir\u00e9 method for accurate small deformation distribution measurement","volume":"50","author":"Ri","year":"2010","journal-title":"Exp. Mech."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"231","DOI":"10.1538\/expanim.46.231","article-title":"Simple and efficient vitrification procedure for cryopreservation of mouse embryos","volume":"46","author":"Nakao","year":"1997","journal-title":"Exp. Anim."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1590","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbiomech.2008.01.031","article-title":"Round versus flat: Bone cell morphology, elasticity, and mechanosensing","volume":"41","author":"Bacabac","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Appl. Biomech."}],"container-title":["Micromachines"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-666X\/6\/5\/648\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T20:46:51Z","timestamp":1760215611000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-666X\/6\/5\/648"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,22]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,5]]}},"alternative-id":["mi6050648"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mi6050648","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-666X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-666X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,22]]}}}