Gardnerella vaginalis outcompetes 29 other bacterial species isolated from BV patients in an in vitro biofilm formation model

• Autor(a) principal: Alves, Patrícia Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Castro, J., Sousa, Cármen, Cereija, Tatiana Barros Reis, Cerca, Nuno
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/32708
• topic: Bacterial vaginosis; Multi-species biofilm; Virulence determination; Science & Technology

Despite the worldwide prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV), its etiology is still unknown. Although BV has been associated with the presence of biofilm, the ability of BV-associated bacteria to form biofilms is still largely unknown. Here, we isolated 30 BV-associated species and characterized their virulence, using an in vitro biofilm formation model. Our data suggests that Gardnerella vaginalis had the highest virulence potential, as defined by higher initial adhesion and cytotoxicity of epithelial cells, as well as the greater propensity to form a biofilm. Interestingly, we also demonstrated that most of the BV-associated bacteria had a tendency to grow as biofilms.