Step-by-Step Demonstration of the Multi-ZSC® Swim Up Column

Professor, Panos Zavos,
Inventor of the Multi-ZSC® technology
President & CEO, ZDL, Inc.
Founder and Director, Andrology Institute of America
Associate Director, Kentucky Center for Reproductive Medicine & IVF

Using the Multi-ZSC Kit

The materials that you will need to proceed with
Semen Preparation using the Multi-ZSC® Kit are as follows:

• Multi-ZSC® Kit (includes Multi-ZSC® and TomCat catheter)
• SpermPrep Media (12mL vial)*
• LabTop Incubator*
• 5mL syringe*
• Pipette*
• Test Tubes*
• IUI Catheter (optional)*

*purchased separately

Step 1

Remove the Multi-ZSC® from pouch and keep warm (37°C) throughout the procedure. Maintaining physiological temperature is very important to insure maximal yield of healthy, motile sperm. Use an incubator for incubation.

Remove top stopper and using a pipette, place 2.0mL of liquefied semen inside the cone on the bottom until completely filled. Avoid introducing air bubbles during placement of semen. Also, the use of non-liquefied, viscous specimens can prevent the proper recovery of sperm. For viscous samples, use the VLS Kit.

Step 2

Using a 5mL syringe attached to a TomCat catheter (provided), place 4.0 mL of media (SpermPrep®) in the area around the cone containing the semen, and make sure that the top of the cone containing the semen is completely covered.

Continue to fill the various compartments of the Multi -ZSC one-by-one using all 4.0mL of media.

Cap the Multi-ZSC® with top stopper.

Step 3

Place the Multi-ZSC® in an incubator at 37°C and incubate for 60 minutes. For ICSI or other ART procedures, you may wish to shorten or prolong the incubation time, according to the numbers of sperm you wish to recover.

If specimen is deficient, you may incubate longer in order to harvest larger populations of motile sperm that could bring about better response in IUI or IVF procedures.

Step 4

Remove the Multi-ZSC® from incubator. Using the 5mL syringe attached to the provided TomCat catheter, remove all media placed in Multi-ZSC® by compartment, by placing the TomCat catheter on the outside of the bottom of each cone and aspirating until all media containing the healthy sperm is removed from each compartment (approximately 1.0 mL each).

Step 5

Label and keep the media from each compartment separate.

You may use the recovered sperm in media as is, or you may choose to pool and concentrate the recovered sperm to desirable levels via centrifugation prior to performing an ART procedure.

Step 6

If you employ the Multi-ZSC® in your IVF program, you may know that we carry a complete list of IVF products and micromanipulation equipment.

We carry a variety of IUI catheters. We also market the LabTop® Incubator and the Viscolytic System for enzymatic liquefaction of viscous specimens.

References:

The manuscript below is available for download by clicking on the title

Zavos PM, Abou-Abdallah M, Aslanis P, Correa JR, Zarmakoupis-Zavos PN: Use of the Multi-ZSC one-step standardized swim-up method: recovery of high quality spermatozoa for intrauterine insemination or other forms of assisted reproductive technologies. Fertility and Sterility 72(4): 834-835, 2000.