Dept. of Bioengineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology J2-15, Yokohama 226-8501, Japan.
Biotechnol Prog. 2010 Sep-Oct;26(5):1213-21. doi: 10.1002/btpr.447.
A simple two-chamber diffusion method was developed to study the diffusion properties of bacteriophages (phages). The apparent diffusion coefficients (D(app)) of Myoviridae phage T4 and filamentous phage fNEL were investigated, and the diffusion of the phages was found to be much slower than the diffusion of three antibiotics, ciprofloxacin, penicillin G, and tetracycline. D(app) of T4 and fNEL in water through filter paper were calculated to be 2.8 x 10⁻¹¹ m²/s and 6.8 x 10⁻¹² m²/s, respectively, and D(app) of fNEL through agarose gel membrane, an artificial biofilm, was also calculated to be smaller than that of T4. In addition, D(app) of phages through agarose gel was dependent on agarose concentration due to the similar size of phage and agarose gel mesh. We concluded that D(app) of phages through an artificial biofilm is dependent on both phage morphology and biofilm density, and suggest the use of this method to study diffusion properties through real biofilms.
开发了一种简单的双室扩散方法来研究噬菌体（phages）的扩散特性。研究了肌尾噬菌体 T4 和丝状噬菌体 fNEL 的表观扩散系数（D(app)），发现噬菌体的扩散速度远低于三种抗生素（环丙沙星、青霉素 G 和四环素）的扩散速度。通过滤纸计算出 T4 和 fNEL 在水中的 D(app)分别为 2.8 x 10⁻¹¹ m²/s 和 6.8 x 10⁻¹² m²/s，并且通过琼脂糖凝胶膜（人工生物膜）计算出的 fNEL 的 D(app)也小于 T4。此外，由于噬菌体和琼脂糖凝胶网格的大小相似，噬菌体通过琼脂糖凝胶的 D(app)取决于琼脂糖浓度。我们得出结论，噬菌体通过人工生物膜的 D(app)取决于噬菌体形态和生物膜密度，并建议使用该方法研究通过真实生物膜的扩散特性。
