REDUCTION OF CAPACITY FORM BIOFILMS OF Pseudomonas aeruginosa USING CONDUCTIVE POLYMERS

GALLARATO LA; CAVALLO P; DARDANELLI MS; BARBERO CA; ACEVEDO D; YSLAS EI*

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2015

A major cause of cases of nosocomial infections that occur each year are associated with implantation of medicaldevices. One of the main causes of failure of devices and materials (catheters, implantable orthopedic implants) is theestablishment of infection by bacteria due to the ability to produce biofilm. The aim of this study is to evaluate theinteraction between Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and modified surfaces with conductive polymers. P.aeruginosa is a Gram negative bacteria that has the ability to form biofilms, requirement for chronic colonization ofhuman tissue and persistence in implanted medical devices. This works supports polyamide polymers, which weresurface-modified polyaniline and micro-structured surfaces are used. The polymer films were characterized by UVvisiblespectroscopy and Infrared. Subsequently, the effect of surfaces on bacterial adhesion was evaluated. Fromthese experiments were observed that these bacteria when placed against a surface of PANI exhibit a markedreduction in the ability to form biofilms compared to unmodified polyamide film. While on the other hand, a decreasein biofilm formation was observed although not as marked between the micro-structured surfaces PANI and PANIsurface. Therefore, depending on chemistry and topography of the surfaces these bacteria have different behaviors asregards the ability to form biofilms.