Visualizing Antimicrobials in Bacterial
Biofilms: Three-Dimensional Biochemical
Imaging Using TOF-SIMS
Biofilms: Three-Dimensional Biochemical
Imaging Using TOF-SIMS
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Bacterial biofilms are groups of bacteria that exist within a self-produced extracellular matrix, adhering to each other and usually to a surface. They grow on medical equipment and inserts such as catheters and are responsible for many persistent infections throughout the body, as they can have high resistance to many antimicrobials. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause both acute and chronic infections and is used as a model for research into biofilms. Direct biochemical methods of imaging of molecules in bacterial biofilms are of high value in gaining a better understanding of the fundamental biology of biofilms and biochemical gradients within them. Time of flight–secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is one approach, which combines relatively high spatial resolution and sensitivity and can perform depth profiling analysis. It has been used to analyze bacterial biofilms but has not yet been used to study the distribution of antimicrobials (including antibiotics and the antimicrobial metal gallium) within biofilms. Here we compared two methods of imaging of the interior structure of P. aeruginosa in biological samples using TOF-SIMS, looking at both antimicrobials and endogenous biochemicals: cryosectioning of tissue samples and depth profiling to give pseudo-three-dimensional (pseudo-3D) images. The sample types included both simple biofilms grown on glass slides and bacteria growing in tissues in an ex vivo pig lung model. The two techniques for the 3D imaging of biofilms are potentially valuable complementary tools for analyzing bacterial infection.
Date Issued
2017-07-19
Date Acceptance
2017-06-25
Citation
mSphere, 2017, 2 (4)
ISSN
2379-5042
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Journal / Book Title
mSphere
Volume
2
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Davies et al. This is an open-
access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Grant Number
097816/Z/11/A
Subjects
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
TOF-SIMS
biofilms
imaging
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e00211-17