Environmental and centrifugal factors influencing the visco-elastic properties of oral biofilms in vitro

Abstract

Centrifugal compaction causes changes in the surface properties of bacterial cells. It has been shown previously that the surface properties of planktonic cells change with increasing centrifugal compaction. This study aimed to analyze the influences of centrifugal compaction and environmental conditions on the visco-elastic properties of oral biofilms. Biofilms were grown out of a layer of initially adhering streptococci, actinomyces or a combination of these. Different uni-axial deformations were induced on the biofilms and the load relaxations were measured over time. Linear-Regression-Analysis demonstrated that both the centrifugation coefficient for streptococci and induced deformation influenced the percentage relaxation. Centrifugal compaction significantly influenced relaxation only upon compression of the outermost 20% of the biofilm (p < 0.05), whereas biofilm composition became influential when 50% deformation was induced, invoking re-arrangement of the bacteria in deeper biofilm structures. In summary, the effects of centrifugal compaction of initially adhering, centrifuged bacteria extend to the visco-elastic properties of biofilms, indicating that the initial bacterial layer influences the structure of the entire biofilm.

Keywords:

• centrifugation
• visco-elasticity
• mechanical properties
• dental plaque
• biofilm structure