AVS 51st International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI1-WeM

Paper BI1-WeM2
Modeling of Bacterial Attachment Using Lewis Acid-Base Models of Colloidal Adhesion

Wednesday, November 17, 2004, 8:40 am, Room 210D

Session: Cell-Surface Interactions
Presenter: L.K. Ista, The University of New Mexico
Authors: L.K. Ista, The University of New Mexico
K. Artyushkova, The University of New Mexico
T.M. Madrid, The University of New Mexico
J.E. Fulghum, The University of New Mexico
G.P. Lopez, The University of New Mexico
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Understanding the processes involved in primary bacterial adhesion to solid surfaces is an important step in development of surfaces on which biofilm formation can be controlled. The relationship of the interfacial tensions between the attaching organism, the liquid medium and the solid substratum determines whether or not attachment can proceed. Control of bacterial attachment is most easily addressed, therefore, by control of substratum surface energy. The relationship between surface energy and attachment can be described qualitatively using colloidal models of adhesion, although a definitive quantitative model is still elusive. Most attempts at modeling bacterial attachment have been made using data generated from attachment to commercially available substrata or their derivatives, many of which are chemically ill-defined. Investigation of substratum physicochemistry on the attachment of a marine bacterium is described. Model solid substrata were generated using mixed self-assembled monolayers of @omega@-terminated alkanethiolates on gold. These substrata varied systematically in Lewis acid-base, dispersive and polar characteristics, while controlling for other surface factors that may affect bacterial adhesion. The test bacterial strain was the gram negative, marine bacterium Cobetia marina. The surface energetics of this organism were determined by partition into organic solvents that differed in their surface energy . Attachment of this organism to SAM surfaces was then quantified and modeled using standard Lewis acid base models of colloidal attachment and multivariate analysis.