The success of in vitro fertilization depends on many factors, one of which is sperm viability. A recent study by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign records a new way to choose sustainable sperm and extend their viability in the laboratory, reducing a source of volatility during the process.
The trumpet in women or the egg has the ability to lengthen the shelf life of the sperm that we have not been able to recreate into IVF so far. In 2020, we have discovered that the complex sugars called sweets are the ingredients of the ovaries that can bind and store sperm and keep them alive. “
David Miller, Senior Study Author, Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in Illinois
Miller’s team worked with chemists to test hundreds of sweeteners for their ability to bind the pig’s sperm, defining in one called a sulfur lewis x Trisaccharide or sulex, for further tests. They focused on the sperm of pigs not only as proof of the concept of future human studies, but also because animal agriculture is also based on IVF. In IVF pig, multiple sperm often fertilizes individual eggs, resulting in limestone embryos. The hope of using the sweeteners was that fewer free swimming sperm will approach and fertilize eggs at the same time.
The researchers connect the sulex to the bottom of the cultivation dishes, then added the sperm. The sperm took 30 minutes to adhere to the compounds before the researchers began adding eggs, introducing 0, 6, 12 or 24 hours later.
“By adding eggs to later times. We could try the system to see if SULEX increased the longevity of the sperm.” We have essentially found that we can maintain or extend fertilization rates over time, increasing the window of successful IVF, “Miller said.
At 0 hours, the effectiveness of IVF (fertilized Zygotes versus the total egg number) was significantly larger with the sperm originally associated with the sulex (at 53%) than an ovarian -free control (36%) and two alternatives “control” (about 40%each).
Time delays reduce fertilization rates for all groups, but less for sulex. In the ovarian -free control group, fertilization was reduced to 1% to a 24 -hour point. But with the sulex, 12% of eggs were fertilized after 24 hours.
The regulation of IVF sulex fertilization also allowed researchers to flush free swimming sperm before importing eggs.
“Because the sperm was safely connected to the anise union, we could reduce the total sperm number, which meant fewer cases where more than one sperm fertilize eggs,” Miller said.
The fundamental study could one day improve the success of IVF for both animals and humans.
“There are companies, especially related to dairy cattle, that use IVF for the production and sale of high genetic shares that, after being delivered, will produce milk more effectively,” Miller said. “This technology could potentially help produce meat and milk more effectively.”
He added that these particular glyceans binding on human sperm have not yet been identified, but as soon as this happens, glucan-IVF could help with timing mismatches between egg maturity during harvesting and sperm viability in humans.
“Both eggs and sperm must be subject to maturing phase before they are ready for fertilization, so time is critical. There is volatility at the time the sperm needs to complete the final ripening step,” Miller said. “We believe that Glycan-IVF could extend the fertile window of sperm and possibly increase IVF rates, although we need further tests to confirm it.”
The study, “Pig sperm is committed to an ovarian glucin associated with glass surfaces as a model of sperm interaction with the egg”, published in scientific reports [DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-88986-2]. The authors include Sandra Soto-Heras, Larissa Volz, Nicolai Bovin and David Miller. The research was supported by the National Institute of Health and Human Development of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, part of the National Institutes of Health (RO1HD095841).
Miller is also associated with Carl R. Woeese’s Institute of Genomal Biology in U. of I.
Source:
Magazine report:
Soto-Heras, S., et al. (2025). Pig sperm is associated with an ovarian glucan associated with glass surfaces as a sperm interaction model with the egg. Scientific reports. Doi.org/10.1038/S41598-025-88986-2.
