PDMS Chip Assay for the Detection of Biofilm Formation

Monitoring and detecting pathogen-containing biofilms play a major role in controlling the spread of foodborne disease. In comparison to 96-well plates, PDMS chips were found to yield considerably higher biofilm content. An increase in the yield of biofilm was observed with both incubation time and cell density added to PDMS chip using either biofilm colony forming units (CFU) or crystal violet (CV) measurements at 595 nm. PDMS chip biofilm assay was successfully used to detect biofilm formation of different Foodborne pathogens which in turn generated power equations (Y= 0.0068 x 0.416, Y= 0.0042 x 0.433, Y= 0.0045 x 0.438 between biofilm CFU and CV reading of the biofilms that were obtained from Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7 respectively. PDMS assay was visually used for detecting biofilm of specific species or strains of pathogens. This chip can be successfully used for the quantitative detection of biofilm-forming bacteria in environmental samples with the assessment of initial number of bacterial cells added to the channels. © IDOSI Publications, 2011