Bacterial adherence on UHMWPE with vitamin E: an in vitro study.

Orthopaedic materials may improve its capacity to resist bacterial adherence, and subsequent infection. Our aim was to test the bacterial adherence to alpha-tocopherol (frequently named vitamin E, VE) doped or blended UHMWPE with S. aureus and S. epidermidis, compared to virgin material. Collection strains and clinical strains isolated from patients with orthopaedic infections were used, with the biofilm-developing ability as a covariable. While collection strains showed significantly less adherence to VE-UHMWPE, some clinical strains failed to confirm this effect, leading to the conclusion that VE doped or blended UHMWPE affects the adherence of some S. epidermidis and S. aureus strains, independently of the concentration in use, but the results showed important intraspecies differences and cannot be generalized.

DLC coatings for UHMWPE: relationship between bacterial adherence and surface properties.

Development of intrinsically antibacterial surfaces is of key importance in the context of prostheses used in orthopedic surgery. This work presents a thorough study of several plasma-based coatings that may be used with this functionality: diamond-like carbon (DLC), fluorine-doped DLC (F-DLC), and a high-fluorine-content-carbon-fluor polymer (CF(X)). The coatings were obtained by a radio-frequency plasma-assisted deposition on ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) samples and physicochemical properties of the coated surfaces were correlated with their antibacterial performance against collection and clinical Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis strains. The fluorine content and the relative amount of C-C and C-F bonds were controlled by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and hydrophobicity and surface tension by contact angle measurements. Surface roughness was studied by Atomic Force Microscopy. Additional nanoidentation studies were performed for DLC and F-DLC coatings. Unpaired t test and regression linear models evaluated the adherence of S. aureus and S. epidermidis on raw and coated UHMWPE samples. Comparing with UHMWPE, DLC/UHMWPE was the least adherent surface with independence of the bacterial species, finding significant reductions (p ≤ 0.001) for nine staphylococci strains. Bacterial adherence was also significantly reduced in F-DLC/ UHMWPE and CFx/UHMWPE for six strains.