Attachment of bacteria to model solid surfaces: oligo(ethylene glycol) surfaces inhibit bacterial attachment

Abstract

Bacterial cell attachment to the surfaces of self-assembled monolayers formed by the adsorption of omega-substituted alkanethiols on transparent gold films has been studied under defined bacterial culture and flow conditions. Phase contrast microscopy was used to quantify the attachment of two organisms, one of medical (Staphylococcus epidermidis) and one of marine (Deleya marina) importance. Self-assembled monolayers terminated with hexa(ethylene glycol), methyl, carboxylic acid and fluorocarbon groups were investigated. Over the range of experimental conditions, self-assembled monolayers formed from HS(CH2)11(OCH2CH2)6OH were found to be uniformly resistant to bacterial attachment, with a 99.7% reduction of attachment for both organisms when compared to the most fouled surface for each organism. On other surfaces, S. epidermidis and D. marina were shown to exhibit very different attachment responses to the wettability of the substratum. While the attachment of S. epidermidis correlated positively with surface hydrophilicity, D. marina showed a preference for hydrophobic surfaces. This study suggests that surfaces incorporating high densities of oligo(ethylene glycol) are good candidates for surfaces that interact minimally with bacteria.

Inhibition of adhesion of yeasts and bacteria by poly(ethylene oxide)-brushes on glass in a parallel plate flow chamber

“…Surprisingly, it has also been found that a selfassembled monolayer of PEO with only six PEO units is able to prevent the adhesion of Sta. epidermidis ATCC 14990 and Deleya marina ATCC 25374 (Ista et al, 1996). Bridgett et al (1992) showed that surfactants with PEO chains as short as three PEO units were able to reduce the adhesion of three Sta.…”

“…Therewith, a PEO-brush forms a steric barrier preventing close approach and thus attenuates the attractive Lifshitz-Van der Waals interaction between the protein and the surface. PEO-coatings have also been investigated for their ability to prevent bacterial adhesion (Park et al, 1998;Razatos et al, 2000;Ista et al, 1996;Bridgett et al, 1992). Varying results have been obtained, ranging from reductions in bacterial adhesion of 98 % (Razatos et al, 2000;Ista et al 1996), 90-98 % (Bridgett et al, 1992) and between 0 and 90 % (Park et al, 1998).…”

“…PEO-coatings have also been investigated for their ability to prevent bacterial adhesion (Park et al, 1998;Razatos et al, 2000;Ista et al, 1996;Bridgett et al, 1992). Varying results have been obtained, ranging from reductions in bacterial adhesion of 98 % (Razatos et al, 2000;Ista et al 1996), 90-98 % (Bridgett et al, 1992) and between 0 and 90 % (Park et al, 1998). These studies, however, have used only a small number of strains and the adhesion methodology employed involved dipping and slight rinsing, which may also cause detachment and accompanying low adhesion numbers (Gò mez-Suárez et al, 2001).…”

Surface Sensing and Settlement Strategies of Marine Biofouling Organisms

“…Such inert coatings have been identified for a number of well-defined surfaces in short term, single species assays. Especially ethylene glycol (EG) x -containing coatings have been used in the biomedical area [21][22][23][24] and have recently been investigated with respect to their marine anti-fouling potential [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. However, the degradation of the ethylene-glycol-containing chemistries makes them unsuitable for long-term antifouling applications [34,35].…”

“…Especially self-assembled monolayers (SAM) [75,76] are a versatile class of functional interfaces that are frequently applied in biofouling research, since their mechanical properties are determined by the substrate and thus biological response is solely caused by the surface chemistry. Application of SAM in biofouling research was pioneered by the Lopez group [25,64]. Extensive studies followed, focusing on various surface properties including wettability, hydration, and lubricity [31,33,64,67,77,78].…”