Skip Navigation


Journal of Electron Microscopy Advance Access originally published online on February 15, 2008
Journal of Electron Microscopy 2008 57(2):67-75; doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfn002
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
57/2/67    most recent
dfn002v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hobot, J.
Right arrow Articles by Bowler, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hobot, J.
Right arrow Articles by Bowler, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Effect of Hydrofiber® wound dressings on bacterial ultrastructure**

Jan Hobot1,*, Michael Walker2, Geoffrey Newman1 and Philip Bowler2

1 Medical Microscopy Sciences, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN
2 ConvaTec Wound TherapeuticsTM, Global Development Centre, 1st Avenue, Deeside Industrial Park, Deeside, Flintshire CH5 2NU, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hobot{at}cf.ac.uk

Ionic silver has well-proven bactericidal properties, and silver-containing wound dressings are now widely used to aid in the creation of an antimicrobial environment in wounds. The effect of silver ions on bacterial ultrastructure can best be studied by viewing bacterial cells under a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Bacterial cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were incubated within a control dressing (e.g. a non-antimicrobial Hydrofiber® dressing) (Hydrofiber® is a registered trademark of E.R. Squibb and Sons, L.L.C.) and a silver-containing Hydrofiber® dressing, followed by processing for TEM. Liquid cultures, with and without silver, were prepared for comparison. The addition of silver to growing bacterial cultures stopped growth of the cells very quickly. Ultrastructurally, the presence of silver was found to affect both the shape of the bacterial nucleoid and the organization of bacterial DNA. X-ray microanalysis of bacteria from liquid cultures showed the presence of silver within silver-treated cells and the absence of calcium. It is suggested that the presence of available silver ions within the Hydrofiber® dressing could lead to the loss of cellular ions, vital for maintaining the structural integrity of the nuclear area.

Keywords     bacteria, ultrastructure, transmission electron microscopy, silver, Hydrofiber® wound dressing, wound healing

Received      5 August 2007, accepted 6 January 2008

** This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Geoffrey Newman.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.