IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThP

Paper BI-ThP8
Do the Chemical Properties of Polymeric Surfaces Influence the Bacterial Adhesion?

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Biomolecule and Cell Poster Session
Presenter: G. Speranza, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
Authors: G. Speranza, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
R. Canteri, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
C. Pederzolli, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
G. Gottardi, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
L. Pasquardini, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
E. Carli, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
M. Grosello, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
A. Lui, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
M. Anderle, ITC-irst, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Italy
Correspondent: Click to Email
Understanding the mechanisms underlying the interactions between biological systems and polymeric surfaces is of paramount importance. In fact, for their physico-chemical properties, polymers as biomaterials, are utilized in a even larger variety of applications. However, an increasing significance in the medical routine is assumed by the development of bacterial infections caused by implanted polymeric devices (up to 40% of nosocomial infections). In this respect the investigation of the phenomena which take place at the interface between polymeric surface and bacterial wall, are gaining a great relevance. Due to the high level of complexity, these processes, to the best of our knowledge, are still not well clarified. Aim of this work is to investigate this topic to reach a deeper degree of comprehension. The description of the interfacial interactions at the biomaterial surface normally make use of the van der Waals forces. A new term that involves acid-base interactions is here hypothesized to fully describe the bacterial adhesion to the polymer surface. Two requirements are needed to test this hypothesis: an ideal polymeric surface in terms of chemical and morphological properties and "standard samples" as bacterial strains. Several experiments were worked out using the Escherichia Coli (Gram-) strain and its growth on polymers having an "acid" or "basic" character, was investigated. The first findings seems to indicate that the bacterial adhesion is influenced by the chemical properties of the polymeric surface. This first results may be interpreted taking into account a mechanism in which the acid/base (Lewis) interaction plays an important role.