Effect of Antimicrobial and Physical Treatments on Growth of Multispecies Staphylococcal Biofilms

The prevalence and structure of and within multispecies biofilms were found to depend sensitively on physical environment and antibiotic dosage. Although these species commonly infect similar sites, such as orthopedic implants, little is known about their behavior in multispecies communities, particularly in response to treatment. This research establishes that is much more prevalent than when simultaneously seeded and grown under unstressed conditions (pH 7, 37°C) in both laboratory and clinical strains. In multispecies communities, is capable of growing a more confluent biofilm when the addition of is delayed 4 to 6 h during 18 h of growth. Different vancomycin dosages generate various behaviors: is more prevalent at a dose of 1.0 μg/ml vancomycin, but reduced growth of both species occurs at 1.9 μg/ml vancomycin. This variability is consistent with the different MICs of and Growth at higher temperature (45°C) results in an environment where forms porous biofilms. This porosity allows to colonize more of the surface, resulting in detectable biomass. Variations in pH result in increased prevalence of at low pH (pH 5 and 6), while remains dominant at high pH (pH 8 and 9). This work establishes the structural variability of multispecies staphylococcal biofilms as they undergo physical and antimicrobial treatments. It provides a basis for understanding the structure of these communities at infection sites and how treatments disrupt their multispecies behaviors. and are two species of bacteria that are commonly responsible for biofilm infections on medical devices. Biofilms are structured communities of bacteria surrounded by polysaccharides, proteins, and DNA; bacteria are more resistant to antimicrobials as part of a biofilm than as individual cells. This work investigates the structure and prevalence of these two organisms when grown together in multispecies biofilms and shows shifts in the behavior of the polymicrobial community when grown in various concentrations of vancomycin (an antibiotic commonly used to treat staphylococcal infections), in a high-temperature environment (a condition previously shown to lead to cell disruption and death), and at low and high pH (a change that has been previously shown to soften the mechanical properties of staphylococcal biofilms). These shifts in community structure demonstrate the effect such treatments may have on multispecies staphylococcal infections.