{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T04:31:31Z","timestamp":1777609891323,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,1]],"date-time":"2015-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1427846400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biosensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A full label-free morphological and biochemical characterization is desirable  to select spermatozoa during preparation for artificial insemination. In order to study these fundamental parameters, we take advantage of two attractive techniques: digital holography (DH) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). DH presents new opportunities for studying morphological aspect of cells and tissues non-invasively, quantitatively and without the need for staining or tagging, while RS is a very specific technique allowing the biochemical analysis of cellular components with a spatial resolution in the sub-micrometer range. In this paper, morphological and biochemical bovine sperm cell alterations were studied using these techniques. In addition, a complementary DH and RS study was performed to identify X- and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm cells. We demonstrate that the two techniques together are a powerful and highly efficient tool elucidating some important criterions for sperm morphological selection and  sex-identification, overcoming many of the limitations associated with existing protocols.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bios5020141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,7]],"date-time":"2015-04-07T03:47:46Z","timestamp":1428378466000},"page":"141-157","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":44,"title":["Label-Free Imaging and Biochemical Characterization of Bovine Sperm Cells"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Maria","family":"Ferrara","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111, 80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Di Caprio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111, 80131 Naples, Italy"},{"name":"Rowland Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7445-385X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefano","family":"Manag\u00f2","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Protein Biochemistry, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111,  80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Annalisa","family":"De Angelis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Protein Biochemistry, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111,  80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Luigi","family":"Sirleto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111, 80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Coppola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111, 80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3696-8465","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"De Luca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Protein Biochemistry, National Research Council, Via P. Castellino, 111,  80131 Naples, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"682","DOI":"10.1016\/j.theriogenology.2008.04.049","article-title":"Sperm morphology and fertility of progeny-tested AI dairy bulls in Sweden","volume":"70","author":"Lundeheim","year":"2008","journal-title":"Theriogenology"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"SpermBlue: A new universal stain for human and animal sperm which is also amenable to automated sperm morphology analysis","volume":"84","author":"Maree","year":"2009","journal-title":"Biotech. Histochem."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"De Luca, A.C., Manag\u00f3, S., Ferrara, M.A., Rendina, I., Sirleto, L., Puglisi, R., Balduzzi, D., Galli, A., Ferraro, P., and Coppola, G. (2014). Non-invasive sex assessment in bovine semen by Raman spectroscopy. Laser Phys. 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