Ferrara, Maria AntoniettaDi Caprio, GiuseppeManagò, StefanoDe Angelis, AnnalisaSirleto, LuigiCoppola, GiuseppeDe Luca, Anna Chiara2015-08-032015Ferrara, Maria Antonietta, Giuseppe Di Caprio, Stefano Managò, Annalisa De Angelis, Luigi Sirleto, Giuseppe Coppola, and Anna Chiara De Luca. 2015. “Label-Free Imaging and Biochemical Characterization of Bovine Sperm Cells.” Biosensors 5 (2): 141-157. doi:10.3390/bios5020141. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bios5020141.2079-6374http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17820752A full label-free morphological and biochemical characterization is desirable to select spermatozoa during preparation for artificial insemination. In order to study these fundamental parameters, we take advantage of two attractive techniques: digital holography (DH) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). DH presents new opportunities for studying morphological aspect of cells and tissues non-invasively, quantitatively and without the need for staining or tagging, while RS is a very specific technique allowing the biochemical analysis of cellular components with a spatial resolution in the sub-micrometer range. In this paper, morphological and biochemical bovine sperm cell alterations were studied using these techniques. In addition, a complementary DH and RS study was performed to identify X- and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm cells. We demonstrate that the two techniques together are a powerful and highly efficient tool elucidating some important criterions for sperm morphological selection and sex-identification, overcoming many of the limitations associated with existing protocols.en-USspermatozoabiophotonicssex-identificationdigital holography microscopyRaman spectroscopyRaman imagingJournal Article2015-08-0310.3390/bios5020141