Interaction of polymeric biomaterials with bacteria (static)

Bacterial adhesion is one of the major clinical complications causing infections and a relatively high-mortality rate after implantation of medical devices. Bacterial adhesion to biotic and abiotic surfaces gives often rise to the formation of a biofilm, otherwise said, an accumulated biomass of microorganisms on a solid substrate embedded within self-produced extracellular components. In this scenario, and due to the fact that the biofilm has shown to display some inherent antibiotic resistance, researchers have been focusing more and more on the development of the antiinfective polymeric biomaterials designed for specific clinical applications and endowed with highbiocompatibility properties. For a thorough understanding of how to develop new strategies, processes, and/or materials suitable for the inhibition of bacterial adhesion, the general bacterial behavior during the cell adhesion process needs to be elucidated first. Furthermore, some classic and more recent technologies successfully applied for the development of biomaterials and surfaces with antibacterial properties will be discussed in the following paragraphs, underlying how their indisputable potential prevents the establishment of infections and/or treats them once they have arisen [3].