Microbiological mapping of factors important for clinical efficacy of the Bactiguard coating

Important results from the project

The purpose of the project was to study factors involving how a patient using Bactiguard coated products may be at risk for acquiring an infection, as well as to map bacteria and their characteristics that are important when it comes to their ability to adhere to the Bactiguard coating. We started with developing a test method for microbial biofilm. A lot of effort has been put into development, and several types of bacteria have been evaluated. Unexpected results have led to an interesting hypothesis about the behavior of the model material.

Expected long term effects

A test method for microbial biofilm has been set up, where biofilm using different types of bacteria have been evaluated on a model material with/without the Bactiguard coating. The bacteria have been grown in urine from different donors and parameters such as volume, pH of the urine and different ways to dislocate the biofilm has been optimized to get a stable model system. We have gained some interesting and new hypotheses regarding the evaluated model material. Now we can start to evaluate these hypotheses and the adhesion of different bacteria in relevant biological environments.

Approach and implementation

The project started with developing a method for evaluating biofilm. The collaboration between Bactiguard and Uppsala University has worked very well, and we have had regular meetings with follow-ups and exchanges of experiences. All steps of the method have been evaluated and refined. It is now robust and reproducible and has led to a hypothesis on how a clinically important material is behaving in biological environments. Our plan is to evaluate these hypotheses and use other model materials, to be able to draw further conclusions regarding the questions we set out for in the project.