The Effect of Polyterpenol Thin Film Surfaces on Bacterial Viability and Adhesion

Kateryna Bazaka,Russell J Crawford,Vi Khanh Truong,Mohan V Jacob,Elena P Ivanova

doi:10.3390/polym3010388

Kateryna Bazaka, Russell J Crawford + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym3010388

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Abstract

The nanometer scale surface topography of a solid substrate is known to influence the extent of bacterial attachment and their subsequent proliferation to form biofilms. As an extension of our previous work on the development of a novel organic polymer coating for the prevention of growth of medically significant bacteria on three-dimensional solid surfaces, this study examines the effect of surface coating on the adhesion and proliferation tendencies of Staphylococcus aureus and compares to those previously investigated tendencies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on similar coatings. Radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was used to coat the surface of the substrate with thin film of terpinen-4-ol, a constituent of tea-tree oil known to inhibit the growth of a broad range of bacteria. The presence of the coating decreased the substrate surface roughness from approximately 2.1 nm to 0.4 nm. Similar to P. aeruginosa, S. aureus presented notably different patterns of attachment in response to the presence of the surface film, where the amount of attachment, extracellular polymeric substance production, and cell proliferation on the coated surface was found to be greatly reduced compared to that obtained on the unmodified surface. This work suggests that the antimicrobial and antifouling coating used in this study could be effectively integrated into medical and other clinically relevant devices to prevent bacterial growth and to minimize bacteria-associated adverse host responses.

Highlights

Biomaterial-associated infections remain a major hindrance to the long-term utilization of most implanted or intravascular devices, including orthopedic prostheses, artificial valves, urinary tract and cardiovascular catheters, intraocular lenses and dentures [1,2]
The surfaces were described in terms of such roughness parameters as the average surface roughness (Ra) which is related to the average/absolute deviation of the surface irregularity from the mean line over one sampling length, the root-mean-square roughness (Rq) or RMS calculated as the standard deviation of the distribution of surface height, and the peak-to-peak roughness (Rmax) which describes the vertical distance between the highest peak and the lowest valley along the assessment length of the surface profile
High resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) studies showed that application of a polyterpenol coating significantly altered the surface topography of the substrates, decreasing the substrate average surface roughness (Ra) from approximately 0.4 nm to 0.25 nm and 0.13 nm for 10 W and 25 W polyterpenol coatings, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Biomaterial-associated infections remain a major hindrance to the long-term utilization of most implanted or intravascular devices, including orthopedic prostheses, artificial valves, urinary tract and cardiovascular catheters, intraocular lenses and dentures [1,2]. Bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation frequently results in indwelling device related infections and device failure [3,4] In their biofilm state, bacteria are less susceptible to host defense mechanisms and systemic antibiotics, and to detachment due to flow conditions. When the distance between the bacterial cell and other cells or abiotic surfaces is larger than 50 nm, the interactions between these two entities are nonspecific and are directly related to the distance and the dispersive component of free energy characteristics pertinent to these two surfaces [6] The nature of these forces, i.e., whether they are attractive or repulsive, will either facilitate the bacterial attachment or prevent the cell from engaging into the molecular or cellular phase of adhesion. Various polymeric structures such as capsules, fimbriae, pili, and slime that can be present on the surface of the bacterial cell engage in the molecular specific irreversible reactions with the chemical features of the tissue or abiotic surface

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