Biofilm Formation
What is a biofilm?
Most of you have never heard of the term “biofilm”, but you have certainly encountered “biofilm” on a routine basis. If you’ve ever been to the dentist and he’s scraped “plaque”, which causes tooth decay, off your teeth; that’s a type of bacterial biofilm. The “slim” that clogs your drains is also biofilm. The slippery coating on rocks, at the water’s edge of a stream or river, is just a bacterial biofilm-coating. Pond-scum – a biofilm. If you’ve ever been diagnosed with Candida albicans, H. pylori or Lyme disease, chances are they’re living, hiding and replicating in a biofilm colony.
Iodine staining of biofilm plaque (upper right)
This is the best product for removing the bacterial biofilm that causes plaque – Biotene PBF Chewing Gum.
These microorganisms (biofilm colonies) are usually encased in an extracellular polysaccharide that they themselves synthesize, via the release of signaling molecules through quorum sensing (QS). This glue-like substance allows them to anchor to all kinds of surfaces – such as metals, plastics, soil particles, medical implant materials, and tissue. As long as sufficient moisture and nutrients are available, a bacterial biofilm can form just about anywhere. In your body that would be from your mouth, especially the teeth, through the stomach and GI tract, all the way down to the rectum. Biofilm in the environment can be found, most often, in ponds, streams, rivers, etc. A biofilm can be formed by a single bacterial species, but more often than not, biofilms consist of many species of bacteria, as well as fungi/yeast, algae, protozoa, debris and corrosion products. Once anchored to a surface, biofilm microorganisms carry out a variety of detrimental or beneficial reactions, depending on the surrounding environmental or body conditions.
In the human body, biofilm colonies are the main reason that certain conditions take so long to get handled. In my opinion, if it were not for “biofilm”, conditions caused by the microorganisms – Candida albicans, Candida spp, H. pylori, Lyme’s bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) and many others, would be far easier to diagnose and/or treat. It is crucial in any treatment protocol to first handle the biofilm. By doing so, it will make a significant difference in the amount of time, money and effort spent on treating many, so called, stubborn condition – like the above.
THE ROLE OF EXTRACELLULAR DNA IN MAINTENANCE OF BIOFILMS FORMED BY E. COLI, H. INFLUENZAE, K. PNEUMONIAE, P. AERUGINOSA, S. AUREUS, S. PYOGENES AND A. BAUMANNII George V. Tetz & Victor V. Tetz Dept. of Microbiology, Virology and Immunology; Saint-Petersburg State Pavlov Medical University, Russia Email: vtetzv@yahoo.com
It is known that bacteria within biofilms are much less susceptible to antibiotics particularly because of poor antimicrobial penetration through surface film that covers microbial community and inactivating role of extracellular matrix. Combined effects of DNase (Enzyme for digesting single and double-stranded DNA) and antibiotics on established biofilms of different unrelated bacteria were displayed. A Combination of antibiotics with DNase I resulted in significant decrease of established biofilm biomass compared to the reduction of biomass achieved when antibiotics or DNase I were used alone.
DETECTION OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI IN BIOFILMS BY USING REAL-TIME POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR) Linke, S., Gebel, J., Büttgen, S., Exner, M. Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn
Our results confirmed a possible existence of H. pylori in drinking-water biofilms.
ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE BIOFILM WOUND MICROFLORA IN HORSE WOUNDS Samantha J. Westgate1, Steven L Percival2*, Derek C. Knottenbelt1 and Christine A. Cochrane1 1University of Liverpool, Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, Division of Equine Studies, Leahurst, Neston, South Wirral, UK *2ConvaTec Wound Therapeutics, Deeside, Flintshire CH5 2NU, UK
Equine wound healing is notoriously problematic on the lower limb, specifically when biofilms are evident. Equine chronic wounds display similar characteristics to chronic wounds in humans thus these cases provide an effective model for human cases. Whether wounds are caused by trauma or surgery their high prevalence is of concern and treatment can be both challenging and costly. Biofilms are considered detrimental to normal healing in non-healing and infected chronic wounds because of their recalcitrant nature towards antimicrobial agents. Biofilms are also known to be resistant to the effects of the immune system. Because of this fact more research in the area of chronic wounds and biofilms is warranted.
Culturable analysis of the microflora revealed that the majority of bacteria isolated from the chronic wounds of horses were Staphylococcus spp, Pseudomonas spp, Micrococcus spp, Enterococcus spp, Corynebacterium spp, Streptococcus spp, Bacillus spp, Aerococcus spp and Clostridium spp. Further analysis of all isolates highlighted their biofilm forming potential and antibiotic resistance profiles. Biofilms were shown to be evident in a large percentage of the chronic wounds. In conclusion these studies provide evidence that biofilms exist in the chronic wounds of horse which may well provide an underlying reason as to why a large percentage of chronic wounds are recalcitrant to antimicrobial therapies, do not heal a timely manner and often become infected.
BACTERIAL BIOFILMS IN SURGICAL SPECIMENS OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS (sinusitis).
Sanclement JA, Webster P, Thomas J, Ramadan HH. Department of Otolaryngology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-9200, USA.
CONCLUSIONS: Biofilms were demonstrated to be present in 80% the 30 patients undergoing surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS); none of the (control) patients without CRS had any evidence of biofilms.
Marcus Ettinger DC, BSc