A brief history of technical developments in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Dedicated to the memory of J.M. Cummins

J. G. Thompson; H. J. McLennan; S. L. Heinrich; M. P. Inge; D. K. Gardner; A. J. Harvey

doi:10.1071/RD24047

REVIEW (Open Access)

Previous Next Contents Vol 36(10)

A brief history of technical developments in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Dedicated to the memory of J.M. Cummins

J. G. Thompson

^A ^B ^C ^* , H. J. McLennan

^A , S. L. Heinrich

^A , M. P. Inge

^A , D. K. Gardner

^D ^E and A. J. Harvey

^D ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Fertilis Pty Ltd, Frome Road, Helen Mayo South, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

^B Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

^C ART Lab Solutions Pty Ltd, 10 Pulteney Street, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

^D Melbourne IVF, East Melbourne, Vic 3002, Australia.

^E School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic 3010, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: jeremy.thompson@adelaide.edu.au

Handling Editor: Marc Yeste

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 36, RD24047 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD24047

Submitted: 28 March 2024 Accepted: 29 May 2024 Published online: 20 June 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is an assisted reproductive technology for treatment of severe male infertility introduced into clinical practice in 1992. This review provides a brief history of the development of ICSI by acknowledging major developments in the field. The review addresses key developments in pre-clinical and early studies, how ICSI compares with in vitro fertilisation, long-term consequences, how the mechanistic approach to ICSI has changed in both manual and semi-automated approaches, and how sperm selection procedures are integrated into ICSI. From the beginnings using animal models in the 1960–1970s, the development of ICSI is a remarkable and transformative success story. Indeed, its broad use (70% of cycles globally) exceeds the need required for treating infertile males, and this remains a controversial issue. There remain questions around the long-term health impacts of ICSI. Furthermore, advances in automation of the ICSI procedure are occurring. An estimated 6 million children have been born from the ICSI procedure. With further automation of sperm selection technologies, coupled with automation of the injection procedure, it is likely that the proportion of children born from ICSI will further increase.

Keywords: assisted reproduction, automation, fertilisation, ICSI, IVF, male infertility, piezo, spermatozoa, sperm injection, sperm selection.

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