Hadjiargyrou Michael, Donnenfeld Eric D, Grillo Lola M, Perry Henry D
Department of Life Sciences, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA.
Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island, 711 Stewart Avenue, Suite 160, Garden City, NY 11530, USA.
Materials (Basel). 2019 Jan 16;12(2):274. doi: 10.3390/ma12020274.
Dry eye is a common condition that is treated primarily by topical lubricants, immunomodulation, and a variety of punctal and canalicular plugs (occluders). Biofilm formation has been reported as an ongoing problem with the clinical use of occluders. In order to explore the role of biofilm formation on occluders, we tested the bacteria strain, , with three different types of occluders, Delta, Odyssey, and Alphamed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of these occluders revealed a variation in surface appearance, with Odyssey being the smoothest (but with grooves), followed by Delta, and Alphamed. Exposing each type of occluder to dynamically grown bacterial cultures of , a ~3 fold statistically significant difference in bacteria colonization between the Odyssey and Alphamed occluder and a ~2 fold higher trend between Odyssey and Delta were detected. These quantitative results were also verified with SEM, showing extensive colonization and biofilm formation on the surface of the Odyssey occluder. The results also indicate that bacterial colonization readily occurs on all three types of occluders. The occluder with the smoothest but grooved surface (Odyssey), displayed increased biofilm formation when compared to those with rougher surfaces.
干眼症是一种常见病症，主要通过局部润滑剂、免疫调节以及各种泪小点和泪小管栓子（阻塞器）进行治疗。生物膜形成已被报道为阻塞器临床使用中持续存在的问题。为了探究生物膜在阻塞器上形成的作用，我们使用三种不同类型的阻塞器Delta、Odyssey和Alphamed对细菌菌株 进行了测试。这些阻塞器的扫描电子显微镜（SEM）图像显示其表面外观存在差异，Odyssey最光滑（但有凹槽），其次是Delta，Alphamed最粗糙。将每种类型的阻塞器暴露于动态生长的 细菌培养物中，发现Odyssey阻塞器和Alphamed阻塞器之间的细菌定植存在约3倍的统计学显著差异，Odyssey阻塞器和Delta阻塞器之间的细菌定植趋势高出约2倍。这些定量结果也通过SEM得到验证，显示Odyssey阻塞器表面有广泛的 定植和生物膜形成。结果还表明，所有三种类型的阻塞器上都容易发生细菌定植。与表面较粗糙的阻塞器相比，表面最光滑但有凹槽的阻塞器（Odyssey）显示出生物膜形成增加。
