Both dynamic and fed-batch systems have been used for the study of biofilms. Dynamic systems, whose hallmark is the presence of continuous flow, have been considered the most appropriate for the study of the last stage of the biofilm lifecycle: biofilm disassembly. However, fed-batch is still the most used system in the biofilm research field. Hence, we have used a fed-batch system to collect cells released fro...
Staphylococcus epidermidis, a normal inhabitant of healthy human skin and mucosae, can cause persistent and relapsing infections due to its ability to adhere to medical devices and form biofilms. Hence, S epidermidis is considered one of the most important medical device-associated nosocomial agents, being particularly associated with vascular catheters. Although the biofilms formed on these catheters are in co...
Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are common bacterial colonisers of the human skin. They are often involved in nosocomial infections due to biofilm formation in indwelling medical devices. While biofilm formation has been extensively studied in Staphylococcus epidermidis, little is known regarding other CoNS species. Here, biofilms from six different CoNS species were characterised in terms of biofilm co...
Staphylococcus epidermidis is an important nosocomial agent among carriers of indwelling medical devices, due to its strong ability to form biofilms on inert surfaces. Contrary to some advances made in the transcriptomic field, proteome characterization of S. epidermidis biofilms is less developed. To highlight the relation between transcripts and proteins of S. epidermidis biofilms, we analyzed the proteomic p...
The proportion of dormant bacteria within Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms may determine its inflammatory profile. Previously, we have shown that S. epidermidis biofilms with higher proportions of dormant bacteria have reduced activation of murine macrophages. RNA-sequencing was used to identify the major transcriptomic differences between S. epidermidis biofilms with different proportions of dormant bacteri...
Gene expression quantification can be a useful tool in studying the properties of bacterial biofilms. Unfortunately, techniques such as RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and quantitative PCR (qPCR) can introduce variability into mRNA transcript measurements, obscuring biologically relevant results. Here we sought to identify the steps that impair accurate gene expression quantification from Staphylococcus epiderm...
Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most commonly isolated etiological agent of nosocomial infections mainly due to its ability to establish biofilms on indwelling medical devices. Detachment of bacteria from S. epidermidis biofilms and subsequent growth in the planktonic form is a hallmark in the pathogenesis of these infections leading to dissemination. Here we showed that S. epidermidis cells collected from bi...
Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm formation on the surface of intravenous catheters is responsible for 22% of the cases of bloodstream infections, in patients in intensive care units in the USA. The ability of S. epidermidis to withstand the high bactericidal activity of human blood is therefore crucial for systemic dissemination. To identify the genes involved in the bacterium's survival, the transcriptome of...
Antibiotic resistance is a serious problem in Staphylococcus epidermidis infections as many clinical isolates of this organism are resistant to up to eight different antibiotics. The increased resistance to conventional antibiotic therapy has lead to the search for new antimicrobial therapeutic agents. Farnesol, an essential oil found in many plants, has been shown to be active against S. epidermidis. Using a t...