ArticleScientific reports2017
Fluid viscoelasticity promotes collective swimming of sperm.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 139 citations in OpenAlex.
- Research progress on the role and mechanism of DNA damage repair in germ cell development.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Pooled it
- Medium Composition Determines the Dynamics of Boar In Vitro Sperm Capacitation-Associated Events.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Sperm hyperactivation drives a circling-and-wandering swimming behavior.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Known and Unknown About Female Reproductive Tract Mucus Rheological Properties.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Unravel the rotational and translational behavior of a single squirmer in flexible polymer solutions at different Reynolds numbers.Communications physics · 2025Article
- Assessing Bovine Male Fertility in a Technological Age.Advances in anatomy, embryology, and cell biology · 2025Review
- Hybrid motility mechanism of sperm at viscoelastic fluid-solid interface.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Designing highly efficient interlocking interactions in anisotropic active particles.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Self-organized vortex phases and hydrodynamic interactions in Bos taurus sperm cells.Physical review. E · 2024Article
- Hybrid motility mechanism of sperm at viscoelastic-solid interface.Research square · 2024Article
- Single-cell magnetotaxis in mucus-mimicking polymeric solutions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Qualified sperm selection based on the rheotaxis and thigmotaxis in a microfluidic system.Biomedical engineering letters · 2023Article
- Acoustic microbubble propulsion, train-like assembly and cargo transport.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Hydrodynamic clustering of two finite-length flagellated swimmers in viscoelastic fluids.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- Locomotion of bovine spermatozoa during the transition from individual cells to bundles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Activation of sperm Toll-like receptor 2 induces hyperactivation to enhance the penetration to mucus and uterine glands: a trigger for the uterine inflammatory cascade in cattle.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Effect of High Viscosity on Energy Metabolism and Kinematics of Spermatozoa from Three Mouse Species Incubated under Capacitating Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- How environment affects active particle swarms: a case study.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Bundle formation of sperm: Influence of environmental factors.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- The influence of the female reproductive tract and sperm features on the design of microfluidic sperm-sorting devices.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
From flocking birds to swarming insects, interactions of organisms large and small lead to the emergence of collective dynamics. Here, we report striking collective swimming of bovine sperm in dynamic clusters, enabled by the viscoelasticity of the fluid. Sperm oriented in the same direction within each cluster, and cluster size and cell-cell alignment strength increased with viscoelasticity of the fluid. In contrast, sperm swam randomly and individually in Newtonian (nonelastic) fluids of low and high viscosity. Analysis of the fluid motion surrounding individual swimming sperm indicated that sperm-fluid interaction was facilitated by the elastic component of the fluid. In humans, as well as cattle, sperm are naturally deposited at the entrance to the cervix and must swim through viscoelastic cervical mucus and other mucoid secretions to reach the site of fertilization. Collective swimming induced by elasticity may thus facilitate sperm migration and contribute to successful fertilization. We note that almost all biological fluids (e.g. mucus and blood) are viscoelastic in nature, and this finding highlights the importance of fluid elasticity in biological function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.