Microscale patterned surfaces reduce bacterial fouling-microscopic and theoretical analysis

Microscale patterned surfaces have been shown to control the arrangement of bacteria attached to surfaces. This study was conducted to examine the effect of patterned topographies on bacterial fouling using Enterobacter cloacae as the test model. E. cloacae is an opportunistic pathogen involved frequently in nosocomial infections. It is an important model organism to be studied in the context of healthcare associated infections (HAI) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based urinary catheter fouling. Patterned surfaces, such as Sharklet™, have shown the promise of being a benign surface treatment for prevention of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). To the best of our knowledge, inhibition of fouling by E. cloacae has not been demonstrated on microscale patterned PDMS surfaces. In this study, the Sharklet™ and smooth PDMS surfaces were used as controls. All pattern surfaces had statistically significantly lower percentage area coverage compared to the smooth PDMS control. A cross type feature (C-1-PDMS), demonstrated the most significant reduction in percent area coverage, 89% (p < 0.01, α = 0.05), compared to the smooth PDMS control and all other patterned test surfaces. Additionally, theoretical calculations show that C-1-PDMS is the only surface predicted to hold the thermodynamically stable Cassie state, which occurs due to trapping air pockets at the liquid–solid interface. Combined the results provide new insights for designing environmentally benign, novel, microscale patterned surfaces for restricting bacterial fouling.