Bacterial Biofilm Development on Polyethylene with Organic and Inorganic Reagents In Vitro

Abstract

The antimicrobial efficacy of polyethylene (PE) with organic antibacterial agent and inorganic antibacterial agent were evaluated in this work. Moreover, inhibition to bacterial biofilm on their surfaces was investigated in detail. Our experimental results showed that both modified PE samples exhibited excellent antimicrobial performances against S. aureus and E. coli with low cell suspension. When cell suspension increased up to109 cell/ml, a large amount of bacteria (S. aureus and E. coli) and extracellular polysaccharide matrix adhered to the untreated PE and PE with inorganic antibacterial agent. On the other hand, adhesion, colonization and biofilm of S. aureus did not occur on PE with organic antibacterial agent, and a little E. coli survived on its surface. It was demonstrated that organic antibacterial agent had better ability to inhibit bacteria propagation than the inorganic one in initial time, and thus it prevented adherent bacteria to develop biofilm on the surface. The difference was derived from different initial effect time of them against bacteria. Therefore, it was a better approach to prevent catheter-related infections through addition of organic reagent into bulk material.