Adhesion of Escherichia Coli to Nanostructured Surfaces and the Role of Type 1 Fimbriae
Journal article, 2020

Bacterial fimbriae are an important virulence factor mediating adhesion to both biotic and abiotic surfaces and facilitating biofilm formation. The expression of type 1 fimbriae of Escherichia coli is a key virulence factor for urinary tract infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, which represent the most common nosocomial infections. New strategies to reduce adhesion of bacteria to surfaces is therefore warranted. The aim of the present study was to investigate how surfaces with different nanotopography-influenced fimbriae-mediated adhesion. Surfaces with three different nanopattern surface coverages made in polycarbonate were fabricated by injection molding from electron beam lithography nanopatterned templates. The surfaces were constructed with features of approximately 40 nm width and 25 nm height with 100 nm, 250 nm, and 500 nm interspace distance, respectively. The role of fimbriae type 1-mediated adhesion was investigated using the E. coli wild type BW25113 and Delta fimA (with a knockout of major pilus protein FimA) and Delta fimH (with a knockout of minor protein FimH) mutants. For the surfaces with nanotopography, all strains adhered least to areas with the largest interpillar distance (500 nm). For the E. coli wild type, no difference in adhesion between surfaces without pillars and the largest interpillar distance was observed. For the deletion mutants, increased adhesion was observed for surfaces without pillars compared to surfaces with the largest interpillar distance. The presence of a fully functional type 1 fimbria decreased the bacterial adhesion to the nanopatterned surfaces in comparison to the mutants.

injection molding

E. coli

nanostructured surface

biomaterial-associated infections (BAI)

fimbriae

anti-adhesive

anti-bacterial

Author

Pawel Kallas

University of Oslo

Havard J. Haugen

University of Oslo

Nikolaj Gadegaard

University of Glasgow

John Stormonth-Darling

University of Glasgow

Mats Hulander

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Martin Andersson

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Hakon Valen

Nordic Institute of Dental Materials

Nanomaterials

20794991 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 11 2247

Subject Categories

Other Basic Medicine

Microbiology in the medical area

Medical Materials

DOI

10.3390/nano10112247

PubMed

33198386

More information

Latest update

3/21/2023