| Bacteria have the ability to attach to surfaces forming complex communities known as biofilms. Biofilm formation occurs on a wide variety of surfaces including living tissues and indwelling medical devices. Biofilms on implantable devices are a common problem and often the cause of implant rejection and removal. One of the approaches used to prevent biofilm formation on medical implants is the modification of the synthetic polymers used to fabricate medical implants to inhibit bacterial attachment. In this work, we assessed the influence of seven patterned silicone surfaces on Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation. Patterns tested consisted of bars, squares and circles with 6 mum of depth and periodicity between 0.2mum and 20mum. Bacterial biofilm formation on plugs cut from patterned silicone was assessed by direct microscopic observation and quantified as the surface area of pattern covered by biofilm incubation ranging between 20 and 120 hrs. The results obtained for all patterns were compared to those obtained for un-patterned silicone. We found that pattern introduction on silicone surfaces significantly reduced S. aureus. S. epidermidis and P. aeruginosa initial biofilm formation and S. epidermidis later biofilm formation in vitro. |
