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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2008, p. 3551-3558, Vol. 74, No. 11
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00279-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Blocking of Bacterial Biofilm Formation by a Fish Protein Coating{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Rebecca Munk Vejborg and Per Klemm*

Microbial Adhesion Group, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Received 1 February 2008/ Accepted 8 April 2008

Bacterial biofilm formation on inert surfaces is a significant health and economic problem in a wide range of environmental, industrial, and medical areas. Bacterial adhesion is generally a prerequisite for this colonization process and, thus, represents an attractive target for the development of biofilm-preventive measures. We have previously found that the preconditioning of several different inert materials with an aqueous fish muscle extract, composed primarily of fish muscle {alpha}-tropomyosin, significantly discourages bacterial attachment and adhesion to these surfaces. Here, this proteinaceous coating is characterized with regards to its biofilm-reducing properties by using a range of urinary tract infectious isolates with various pathogenic and adhesive properties. The antiadhesive coating significantly reduced or delayed biofilm formation by all these isolates under every condition examined. The biofilm-reducing activity did, however, vary depending on the substratum physicochemical characteristics and the environmental conditions studied. These data illustrate the importance of protein conditioning layers with respect to bacterial biofilm formation and suggest that antiadhesive proteins may offer an attractive measure for reducing or delaying biofilm-associated infections.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Microbial Adhesion Group, Center for Biomedical Microbiology, DTU, Building 301, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark. Phone: 45 4525 2506. Fax: 45 4593 2809. E-mail: pkl{at}biocentrum.dtu.dk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 18 April 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2008, p. 3551-3558, Vol. 74, No. 11
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00279-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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