Holographic imaging of unlabelled sperm cells for semen analysis: a review

TL;DR

This review discusses how digital holography offers a non-invasive, high-resolution method for analyzing unlabelled sperm cells, advancing semen analysis in reproductive health research.

Contribution

It summarizes current advancements in digital holography for semen analysis and explores new potential applications in reproductive health.

Findings

Digital holography enables label-free sperm cell analysis.

Recent achievements include improved morphology and motility characterization.

Potential for new applications in reproductive health diagnostics.

Abstract

Male reproductive health in both humans and animals is an important research field in biological study. In order to characterize the morphology, the motility and the concentration of the sperm cells, which are the most important parameters to feature them, digital holography demonstrated to be an attractive technique. Indeed, it is a labelfree, non-invasive and high-resolution method that enables the characterization of live specimen. The review is intended both for summarize the state-of-art on the semen analysis and recent achievement obtained by means of digital holography and for exploring new possible applications of digital holography in this field.