The effects of a hydroconductive dressing on wound biofilm

  • Randall D Wolcott Southwest Regional Wound Care Center
  • Stephen Cox Research & Testing Laboratory of the South Plains

Abstract

Bacteria possess the ability to cause infection in two very distinct ways.1 The first way is when an individual bacterium with its unique genome uses one portion of its genes to stay a free-floating, motile cell (planktonic phenotype) that has a strategy in a host environment to breach and kill cells with its virulence factors to create a source of nutrition. The second way is that the very same bacterium can up-regulate a separate group of genes, which lets it attach to a host structure. Once attached to the host, the bacterium secretes a polysaccharide matrix around itself and its progeny. When this small group reaches a sufficient number (quorum), signalling molecules (quorum-sensing molecules) direct the gene expression of each bacterium throughout the colony. This lets a community of bacteria develop within the protection of the matrix, which gives colony defences against host immunity, including antibodies and white blood cells.2 Given that a biofilm requires attachment, it cannot use the host tissue to which it is adhered for a nutritional source and, therefore, successful biofilm uses local inflammation to produce plasma exudate on which it can nourish itself.3

Author Biographies

Randall D Wolcott, Southwest Regional Wound Care Center
MD Southwest Regional Wound Care Center Lubbock Texas
Stephen Cox, Research & Testing Laboratory of the South Plains
PhD Research & Testing Laboratory of the South Plains Lubbock Texas
Section
Wound care/Stoma care