Influence of glucose concentration in Clostridium perfringens biofilms

ALEJANDRO ICAZATTI; ALBA E. VEGA; TERESA I. CORTIÑAS; PATRICIA V. STAGNITTA

Mendoza

Congreso; XXVIII Annual Scientific Meeting; 2010

Sociedad Biología de Cuyo

Clostridium  perfringens causes food poisoning in both humans and animals. Biofilms are defined as microorganisms that grow in communities attached to an inert or living tissue surface. The capacity of C. perfringens to form biofilms could be a potential problem for human and animal health because it is known that bacteria within biofilm increases resistance to a variety of stress. The aim of this work was to study the capacity of enterotoxigenic (E) and no enterotoxigenic (NE) C. perfringens strains isolated in San Luis, Argentina, to form biofilm. The E and NE strains were incubated in an optimized clostridia medium (OCM) at different glucose concentration (0%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%) under anaerobic conditions and 37°C during 7 days. The distribution of sessile (biofilm) and planktonic (free-floating) cells was was determined by reading the A570 nm of the methanol-extracted dye,  and the OD580 of the culture supernatants was measured in a plate reader. Higher ratio values (A570/OD580) were obtainded at glucose concentration of 0 and 0.1% than at 0.5 and 1% for both strains after 72h of incubation. All ratio values A570/OD580 diminished at 7 days, meaning growth of planktonic cells increase with time. E. strains showed morphological changes from bacillar to coccoid forms in biofilm without glucose at 7 days. C. perfringens increased its capacity to form biofilm without or with low glucose while E strains expressed resistance forms.