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Review
. 2017 Mar 7;5(1):9.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms5010009.

Microbial Biofilms and Chronic Wounds

Amin Omar  1 , J Barry Wright  2 , Gregory Schultz  3 , Robert Burrell  4 , Patricia Nadworny  5
Affiliations
Review

Microbial Biofilms and Chronic Wounds

Amin Omar et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Background is provided on biofilms, including their formation, tolerance mechanisms, structure, and morphology within the context of chronic wounds. The features of biofilms in chronic wounds are discussed in detail, as is the impact of biofilm on wound chronicity. Difficulties associated with the use of standard susceptibility tests (minimum inhibitory concentrations or MICs) to determine appropriate treatment regimens for, or develop new treatments for use in, chronic wounds are discussed, with alternate test methods specific to biofilms being recommended. Animal models appropriate for evaluating biofilm treatments are also described. Current and potential future therapies for treatment of biofilm-containing chronic wounds, including probiotic therapy, virulence attenuation, biofilm phenotype expression attenuation, immune response suppression, and aggressive debridement combined with antimicrobial dressings, are described.

Keywords: MBEC (minimum biofilm eradication concentration); antibiotic resistance; antibiotic tolerance; exopolymer; inflammation; quorum sensing; wound healing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The following authors declare no conflict of interest: J. B. Wright, G. Schultz, and R. Burrell. A. Omar and P. Nadworny were employed by Innovotech at the time of authoring this paper. The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Stages in the biofilm formation process, including scanning electron microscopy imaging of each stage. Reproduced from [12], by permission of Oxford University Press and FEMS.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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