Biofilm formation by Staphylococcus hominis strains isolated from human clinical specimens

Staphylococcus hominis is the third species of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) most frequently isolated from specimens of patients with hospital-acquired infections. Many infections caused by CoNS appeared to be associated with biofilms. Nevertheless, the knowledge of the ability of S. hominis to form a biofilm is limited. The aim of this study was to analyze the formation of the biofilm by 56 S. hominis strains isolated from clinical cases. The biofilm three-dimensional structure was reconstructed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. We found that most of S. hominis strains carried icaADBC genes encoding polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA), which plays a crucial role in the formation of biofilms in staphylococci strains. However, only a half of the ica-positive strains had an ability to form a biofilm in vitro. In this study, we also accessed the sensitivity of biofilms of S. hominis strains to sodium metaperiodate, proteinase K and DNase. We found that polysaccharides and proteins are the major components of the extracellular matrix of the biofilm formed by S. hominis. DNase did not have a significant effect on biofilms, which suggested that nucleic acid plays a minor role in the mature biofilm.