Accurate and Precise Elemental Abundance of Zinc inReference Materials by an Isotope Dilution MassSpectrometry TIMS Technique

A thermal ionisation mass spectrometric technique enabled the abundance of Zn in geological and biological reference materials and water samples to be measured by double spiking isotope dilution mass spectrometry enriched in the 67Zn and 70Zn isotopes. In the past, thermal ionisation mass spectrometry proved to be difficult for low-level zinc isotopic measurements. The size of Zn samples used for isotopic determination, in particular the biological RMs, represents an important breakthrough. These results represent the most accurate and precise concentrations measured for Zn in these samples. The maximum fractional uncertainty was that for TILL-3 (2%), while the minimum fractional uncertainty was 0.7% for both BCR-1 and W-2. The inhomogeneity of Zn in HISS-1 was revealed while other reference materials appeared homogeneous at the 95% confidence uncertainty. The certified concentration of Zn in HISS-1 and IMEP-19 by their producers are 28% and 3.8% higher than the values measured in this work. These are the first Zn concentration measurements in these materials by the isotope dilution-TIMS technique, except for BCR-1, NIES No 9 and IMEP-19. Reducing the blank enabled accurate measurement in water at the ng g-1 level demonstrating the applicability of the technique for low-level Zn samples

Additional file 1 of Influence of biofilm growth age, media, antibiotic concentration and exposure time on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm removal in vitro

Additional file 1: Figure S1. S. aureus biofilm formation on CBD. After 24 or 72 h of growth, biofilms were removed from the pegs, transferred into the recovery plate and harvested by sonication. Six random wells of each row were selected for CFU count, in total 48 wells per plate. The number of CFUs per peg were different under different conditions. Generally 3 days incubation resulted in more CFUs per peg. Figure S2. P. aeruginosa PA14 biofilm formation on CBD. After 24 or 72 h of growth, biofilms were removed from the pegs, transferred into the recovery plate and harvested by sonication. Six random wells of each row were selected for CFU count, in total 48 wells per plate. The number of CFUs per peg were different under different conditions. Generally 3 days incubation resulted in more CFUs per peg. Figure S3. Flow diagram of the MBEC assay

Influence of biofilm growth age, media, antibiotic concentration and exposure time on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm removal in vitro

Abstract Background Biofilm is known to be tolerant towards antibiotics and difficult to eradicate. Numerous studies have reported minimum biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC) values of antibiotics for many known biofilm pathogens. However, the experimental parameters applied in these studies differ considerably, and often the rationale behind the experimental design are not well described. This makes it difficult to compare the findings. To demonstrate the importance of experimental parameters, we investigated the influence of biofilm growth age, antibiotic concentration and treatment duration, and growth media on biofilm eradication. Additionally, OSTEOmycin™, a clinically used antibiotic containing allograft bone product, was tested for antibiofilm efficacy. Results The commonly used Calgary biofilm device was used to grow 24 h and 72 h biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which were treated with time-dependent vancomycin (up to 3000 mg L− 1) and concentration-dependent tobramycin (up to 80 mg L− 1), respectively. Two common bacteriological growth media, tryptic soy broth (TSB) and cation-adjusted Mueller Hinton broth (CaMHB), were tested. We found for both species that biofilms were more difficult to kill in TSB than in CaMHB. Furthermore, young biofilms (24 h) were easier to eradicate than old biofilms (72 h). In agreement with vancomycin being time-dependent, extension of the vancomycin exposure increased killing of S. aureus biofilms. Tobramycin treatment of 24 h P. aeruginosa biofilms was found concentration-dependent and time-independent, however, increasing killing was indicated for 72 h P. aeruginosa biofilms. Treatment with tobramycin containing OSTEOmycin T™ removed 72 h and 168 h P. aeruginosa biofilms after 1 day treatment, while few 72 h S. aureus biofilms survived after 2 days treatment with vancomycin containing OSTEOmycin V™. Conclusions This study demonstrated biofilm removal efficacy was influenced by media, biofilm age and antibiotic concentration and treatment duration. It is therefore necessary to taking these parameters into consideration when designing experiments. The results of OSTEOmycin™ products indicated that simple in vitro biofilm test could be used for initial screening of antibiofilm products. For clinical application, a more clinically relevant biofilm model for the specific biofilm infection in question should be developed to guide the amount of antibiotics used for local antibiofilm treatment