Lab-on-a-chip spectrophotometric characterization of porcine oocytes

The method of quality assessment of the oocytes of breeding animals based on morphological criteria very often leads to unsuccessful in vitro fertilization and pure breeding result. In this paper we present a spectrophotometric methodology utilizing lab-on-a-chip techniques for optical and subjective characterization of porcine oocytes. A set of parameters describing the features of oocytes deduced from collected absorbance spectra of a single oocyte, has been proposed. Differentiation of the spectra of oocytes coming from different sizes of porcine follicle has been observed. The obtained results are the first step towards an objective quality assessment of porcine oocytes, which in the future may be extended to other breeding animals.