The effects of glucose supplementation on the development of Acinetobacter baumannii biofilms

Salim, Jisa; Adukwu, Emmanuel

Abstract

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii, is an opportunistic pathogen causing pneumonia, bacteraemia, wound and urinary tract infections with high mortality rates due to multidrug resistance. A. baumannii biofilm infections associated with medical equipment, pose significant challenges in treatment. Biofilm growth in glucose-rich media triggers extracellular polymeric substances production, crucial for biofilm adhesion. Additionally, it is known that glucose availability in wounds can affect infection progression. Understanding the role of glucose in aiding biofilm development and pathogenesis of A. baumannii is important. This study aims to explore the effects of glucose supplementation on the growth and biofilm development of clinical and wild-type A. baumannii isolates.

Methods: Five A. baumannii isolates were assessed for biofilm formation using Congo red agar and crystal violet assay. The effects of glucose supplementation on A. baumannii was investigated by growing isolates in media supplemented with 1%-0.13% (v/v) glucose and absorbance readings were taken hourly for 48 hours to construct growth curves.

Results and Conclusion:

Results indicate glucose as a key factor in A. baumannii biofilm formation, affecting both clinical and wild-type isolates. The crystal violet assay shows that multidrug-resistant clinical isolates displayed significantly higher optical density levels compared to the wild-type isolate when grown in glucose-supplemented media after 48 hours. The growth curve demonstrated that the clinical isolate grown in media without glucose exhibited lower optical density levels compared to when grown in media supplemented with various concentrations of glucose over 48 hours.

These findings underscore the significance of environmental stressors such as glucose in A. baumannii adhesion, highlighting potential targets for intervention in combating its biofilm-related infections. Glucose is a preferred carbon source in many microorganisms and important in wound environments, as trauma induced insulin resistance can increase glucose levels in wound microenvironment.

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) 2024
• Start Date: Nov 13, 2024
• End Date: Nov 17, 2024
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13536527
• External URL: https://abrcms.org/about-abrcms/
• Other Repo URL: https://abrcms.org/about-abrcms/