Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

This is a recent further development of the IVF method which has been used in the human since 1992. A single sperm cell is being injected through a micro-needle (with an inner diameter of only 0.005 mm!) directly into the cytoplasm (cellular liquid) of the female egg. With ICSI, stunning success rates have been achieved worldwide even in men with very severe fertility problems. For the involved couple, the treatment is exactly the same like in conventional IVF.

Top: ICSI workstation. The special inverted microscope is equipped with micro-manipulators, the biologist can handle the tiny pipettes with his joysticks, aspirate the sperm cell and inject it into the egg.

A glance through the ICSI microscope. The holding pipette on the left holds the egg in place, while the injection pipette just penetrated the fairly rigid outer shell (zona pellucida) as well as the cellular membrane of the egg. This action is repeated for every single mature egg. The eggs have been aspirated from the ovary of the woman a couple of hours before.

> See a video of ICSI <