Abstract
Antibiotic resistance of bacteria stimulates the development of new treatment approaches. Piezoelectric-catalysis has attracted much attention due to the possibility to effectively provide antibacterial effect via generation of reactive oxygen species. However, the influence of the surface charge or potential of a piezopolymer on bacteria has not been sufficiently studied so far. This study reports the fabrication and characterization of thin films of piezoelectric polyhydroxybutyrate, polyvinylidene fluoride, and polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene as well as non-piezoelectric polycaprolactone polymers fabricated using solution casting approach. The piezoelectric coefficient (d33) and surface electric peak-to-peak potential generated by the cyclic mechanical stress applied to the films were measured. Neither any toxic effect of the polymer films nor ultrasound influence on Escherichia coli bacteria behavior is observed. However, significant inhibition of the growth of bacteria is revealed during mechanical stimulation of piezoelectric samples via ultrasound treatment. Thus, this study demonstrates clear bacteriostatic effect of piezoelectric polymers for different tissue engineering applications.
Highlights
The appearance of the infections with consequent diseases after surgery is one of the most serious complications [1]
The analysis revealed that the bacterial growth rate was slowerslower when U/S
We found the decrease of the number of bacteria with the presence of the piezoelectric polymer films
Summary
The appearance of the infections with consequent diseases after surgery is one of the most serious complications [1]. The frequent use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections and diseases promotes the increase of antibiotic resistance of bacteria, which can cause problems to human health [2]. The development of new alternative antibacterial agents and methodologies without the use of any antibiotics is required. The development of composite biomaterials with different nanoscopic antibacterial agents has been widely studied [3,4,5]. There are alternative ways of using bioactive electrically charged surfaces for the antimicrobial treatment, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) based on the photoelectric effect takes advantage of photo-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated with photosensitizers [6].
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