Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2012
Journal or Book Title
AIP Conference Proceedings
Volume
1481
First Page
463
Last Page
468
DOI
10.1063/1.4757378
Abstract
Medical implants are prone to colonization by bacterial biofilms, which are highly resistant to antibiotics. Normally, surgery is required to replace the infected implant. One promising non-invasive treatment option is to destroy the biofilm with high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) exposure. In our study, Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial biofilms were grown on graphite disks in a flow chamber for three days prior to exposing them to ultrasound pulses of varying duration or burst period. The pulses were 20 cycles in duration at a frequency of 1.1 MHz from a spherically focused transducer (f/1, 63 mm focal length), creating peak compressional and rarefactional pressures at the disk surface of 30 and 13 MPa, respectively. P. aeruginosa were tagged with GFP and cells killed by HIFU were visualized using propidium iodide, which permeates membranes of dead cells, to aid determining the extent of biofilm destruction and whether cells are alive or dead. Our results indicate that a 30-s exposure and 6-ms pulse period or those combinations with the same number of pulses, were sufficient to destroy the biofilm and to kill the remaining cells. Reducing the number of pulses decreased biofilm destruction, leaving more dead and live bacteria on the surface.
Rights
Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
Copyright Owner
American Institute of Physics
Copyright Date
2012
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Xu, Jin; Bigelow, Timothy A.; Halverson, Larry J.; Middendorf, Jill; and Rusk, Ben, "Mechanical destruction of pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms by ultrasound exposure" (2012). Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications. 48.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ece_pubs/48
Included in
Biomedical Commons, Biomedical Devices and Instrumentation Commons, Cell Biology Commons, Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering Commons
Comments
The following article appeared in AIP Conference Proceedings 1481 (2012): 463 and may be found at doi:10.1063/1.4757378.