2021 Annual Meeting
Staphylococcus Epidermidis Growth in Mammalian Cell Culture Media for Models of the Host-Pathogen Interface
Ciara R. Young1, Lily I. Gaudreau1, Elizabeth J. Stewart, Ph.D. 1,2,
- Department of Chemical Engineering, 2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms frequently cause hospital-originating infections and sepsis. Clinical biofilms form in the host environment, which can alter biofilm behaviors. Models of the host-biofilm interface are required to study how the host interface influences biofilm growth and antimicrobial tolerance. An important step towards the creation of an in vitro model of the host-biofilm interface is establishing and assessing biofilm growth in mammalian cell culture media. Here, we report on the effect of mammalian cell culture media and initial bacterial cell concentrations on the planktonic and biofilm growth of S. epidermidis. We found that initial cell concentrations did not alter planktonic growth rates when comparing growth in mammalian cell culture media to growth in bacterial culture media. Biofilm growth was assessed though image analysis of confocal laser scanning microscopy images. We report that higher initial cell concentrations are required for achieving biofilm growth in mammalian cell culture media with similar structures to biofilms grown in bacterial culture media. This shows that the biofilm growth and development seen in standard bacterial culture conditions can be recapitulated in mammalian cell culture media when higher initial bacterial cell concentrations are used to grow biofilms. This finding is important for developing in vitro models of the host-biofilm interface as mammalian cell culture media is required for maintaining mammalian cells in these experimental models.