Abstract: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is the most effective therapy for those infertile couples. In ART therapy such as IVF/ICSI-ET, both sperm and egg should be treated and fertilized in vitro. The fertilized ovum was then cultured in vitro, and the high-quality embryo was singled out for transfer. Therefore, it is very important how to evaluate the quality of sperm, egg and pre-transfer embryos. Raman spectroscopy is a non-damage detection method with the characteristics of speedliness, high sensitivity and accuracy, because the target object is not previously treated and marked. Raman spectroscopy has been used in the rapid detection of damage of biological macromolecule such as protein, nucleic acid and lipid in recent years. There are three kinds of Raman spectroscopy technologies: surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, confocal Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy. This article briefly discussed the characteristics of Raman spectroscopy and the possible application in ART for the evaluation of quality of semen, ovum and embryo, which provided us a reference for the clinical application in future.

Key words: Spectrum analysis, raman, Infertility, Spermatozoa, Ovum, Embryo culture techniques