Study of in vivo catheter biofilm infections using pediatric central venous catheter implanted in rat

Ashwini Chauhan (1) , Jean-Marc Ghigo (1) , Christophe Beloin (1)

1 Génétique des Biofilms

Venous access catheters used in clinics are prone to biofilm contamination, contributing to chronic and nosocomial infections. So far, biofilm physiology was mostly studied in vitro, due to a relative lack of clinically relevant in vivo models. Here, we provide a relevant protocol of totally implantable venous access port (TIVAP) implanted in rats. This model recapitulates all phenomena observed in clinic and allows studying bacterial biofilm development and physiology. After TIVAP implantation and inoculation with luminescent pathogens, in vivo biofilm formation can be monitored in situ and biofilm biomass can be recovered from contaminated TIVAP and organs. We used this protocol to study host responses to biofilm-infection, to evaluate preventive and curative anti-biofilm strategies, and to study fundamental biofilm properties. For this procedure, one should expect ~3h00 of hands-on time including the implantation in one rat followed by in situ luminescence monitoring and bacterial load estimation.

Keywords: biofilm; catheter-related infection; rat model; bioluminescence

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Bacteriology

Ashwini Chauhan, Jean-Marc Ghigo, Christophe Beloin. Study of in vivo catheter biofilm infections using pediatric central venous catheter implanted in rat. Nature Protocols, 2016, 11 (3), pp.525 - 541. ⟨10.1038/nprot.2016.033⟩. ⟨pasteur-01377073⟩