A laboratory assessment of factors that affect bacterial adhesion to contact lenses

Debarun Dutta*, Mark D P Willcox

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Adhesion of pathogenic microbes, particularly bacteria, to contact lenses is implicated in contact lens related microbial adverse events. Various in vitro conditions such as type of bacteria, the size of initial inoculum, contact lens material, nutritional content of media, and incubation period can influence bacterial adhesion to contact lenses and the current study investigated the effect of these conditions on bacterial adhesion to contact lenses. There was no significant difference in numbers of bacteria that adhered to hydrogel etafilcon A or silicone hydrogel senofilcon A contact lenses. Pseudomonas aeruginosa adhered in higher numbers compared to Staphylococcus aureus. Within a genera/species, adhesion of different bacterial strains did not differ appreciably. The size of initial inoculum, nutritional content of media, and incubation period played significant roles in bacterial adhesion to lenses. A set of in vitro assay conditions to help standardize adhesion between studies have been recommended.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1268-1281
Number of pages14
JournalBiology
Volume2
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2013

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0).

Keywords

  • Bacterial adhesion
  • Contact lens
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  • Staphylococcus aureus

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