Quantitative determination of rapid biomass formation on pyro-electrified polymer sheets

Abstract

The ability of a bacterial strain to form a biofilm is strictly related to its pathogenicity. Bacterial adherence and early biofilm formation are influenced by chemical, physical and biological factors that determine their pathogenic properties. We recently presented in literature the ability of pyro-electrified polymer sheets to promote rapid biofilm formation, based on what we called biofilm electrostatic test (BET) carriers. Here we performed a step forward by presenting a comprehensive characterization of the BET methodology through a quantitative evaluation of the biomass on the BET-carrier in the very early stages of incubation. Two bacterial suspensions of Escherichia coli were added to the surface of the BET-carrier, with one order of magnitude difference in initial optical density. The biofilms were stained at different incubation times, while the crystal violet assay and the live/dead reaction kit were used for evaluating the biomass and the viability, respectively. The BET-carrier systematically promoted a faster biofilm formation even in case of very diluted bacterial concentration. The results suggest that the BET-carrier could be used for evaluating rapidly the ability of bacteria to form biofilms and thus their inclination to pathogenicity, thanks to the challenging acceleration in biofilm formation.