Hi Jasna,
Feel free to look at this question. It has quite a few answers that are relevant to your query.
http://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_induce_biofilm_disassembly_dispersion2
I think it depends on the bacteria. Not all biofilm matrix have the same components, some are more DNA rich, other more protein or carbohydrate rich. What species are you working on?
Do you have access to a Sonicator? It is a mechanical instead of enzyme dispersion method, but will work for a variety of species
Juan, I'm not sure sonicator would be a good choice since OP wants to disperse the biofilm without destroying the cells. Sonicator is more than likely to break the cells open.
I completely agree with the other comments.
@Martynas Serys: If you sonicate at higher power levels during a long time, sure you are going to break the cells. But if you use lower intensities for shorter times (like a sonicator bath instead of sonicator probe), you can recover pretty high CFU/mL. It has to be standarized, like any experiment. I have done it with Streptococcus and Staphylococcus with nice results.
@Juan Jimenez You're right. Agreed with that one - I was actually thinking about a sonicator bath after I wrote the reply. I guess it's good that we clarified that one (that's the whole purpose of Q&A's, isn't it ?) !
@Helen Lieb What species do you use ? Just curious !
Are you intersted in leaving the cells unharmed and on the surface, or are you intersted in dispering them into the liquid phase?
Enzymes such as Dispersin B might be useull for digesting the matrix and leaving the biomass unharmed. But, if it is dispersal you're intrested in, two options are nitric oxide (see Barraud et al 2006) and D-amino acids as suggested above.
Dear colleagues, thank you on useful comments. I am working on Acinetobacter baumannii. According to the previous experiment, sonication of planktonic cells results in quite lower CFU. Therefore, I am not sure to use the sonication to suspend bacteria from the biofilm. I am interested in dispersing the bacteria from the biofilm into the liquid phase in order to perform the classical CFU.
We have used DNase - it breaks up DNA linking EPS without penetrating cells
The EPS of A. baumannii are mainly constituted of polysaccharides rhamnose, glucuronic acid and manose.
Dear collegues,
We are thinking to use Dispersin B against Staphylococcus biofilms but it is very expensive in Canada supplier (shipping to Spain). Somebody knows where can we purchase it in Europe? Thanks so much and good luck with your research.
A consideration is to try an ultrasonic waterbath. Tests have shown that bacterial cell in drinking water survive such treatment (evaluated by plate counts and cell bound ATP)
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