Study of Initial Adhesion of a Bacterium to Different Support Materials before and after Conditioning Film of Olive Oil-Mill Wastewater

To improve the start-up speed and efficiency of bioreactors, biofilm technology is sometimes used. This technology uses various types of materials to facilitate the adhesion of microorganisms. In this study, the surface characteristics of inert substrates and substrates after olive oil-mill wastewater (OMWW) conditioning film were evaluated to understand the impact of OMWW on adhesion as well as the most suitable material to optimize bacterial adhesion. Three common substrates made of different polymers were tested for bacterial adhesion before and after treatment with OMWW: PP (polypropylene), PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), and PVC (polyvinyl chloride). The surfaces’ physicochemical characteristics were studied by measuring the contact angle for the studied bacteria strain and the supports, before and after treatment with OMWW. Results of initial adhesion tests for untreated and treated supports showed differences in how bacterial cells adhered to substrates. Before treatment with OMWW, PVC and then PP showed a significant adhesion capacity, double that of PET [PVC: 1.58 × 105 CFU/cm2, PP: 1.48 × 105 CFU/cm2 and PET: 0.72 × 105 CFU/cm2]. After treatment with OMWW, initial bacterial adhesion increased by 106 (from 105 CFU/cm2 for untreated supports to 1011 CFU/cm2 for treated supports), and PET followed by PP demonstrated the highest adhesion capacity, 2 and 1.7 times more than PVC, respectively [PET: 1.39 × 1011 CFU/cm2, PP: 1.15 × 1011 CFU/cm2 and PVC: 0.67 × 1011 CFU/cm2]. OMWW conditioning film affects the physicochemical characteristics of plastic supports, especially the donor electron character, and improves the initial adhesion of bacteria to substrates (105 to 1011 CFU/cm2). Therefore, surfaces’ physicochemical characteristics were important in the initial adhesion of the bacteria onto the support before and after treatment.

A study of the initial adhesive force of cells on silk fibroin-based materials using micropipette aspiration

With the development of biomaterials,more attention is paid to the adhesion characteristics between cells and materials.It is necessary to study the adhesive force with a suitable method.Silk fibroin(SF)is widely investigated in biomedical application due to its novel biocompatibility and mechanical properties.In this article,the micropipette aspiration method and measurement pattern of uniform cells in round shape(UCR)was used to study the initial adhesive force of three types of cells on pure silk fibroin films(SFFs).We also compared the adhesive forces of modified SFFs with that of pure SFFs.The results of adhesive force in the initial adhesive stage were in concordance with the results of MTT assay andmicroscope observation,which were confirmed by the above three cell lines and four kinds of SFFs.The results indicated UCR was an efficient and quantitative measurement pattern in initial adhesion stage.This article also provides a useful method in identifying initial cell-materials interactions.