Purpose: To determine the growth of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus in liquid perfluoroctane perfluoroctane. Methods: Three culture media were used: perfluoroctane, soy and casein digestion broth and 0.9% saline. Five ml perfluoroctane were distributed among 1 ml flasks. Flasks 1 and 2 were inoculated with 1 entire colony of P. aeruginosa and flasks 3 and 4 were inoculated with the same amount of S. aureus. Flask 5 served as control without any contamination. One colony of each bacterium was also inoculated in 1 ml of the remaining culture media. Entire colonies were used because perfluoroctane is immiscible with water. All solutions were kept in an incubator at 37(0)C for 10 days. The cultures were replated under a laminar flow hood using a calibrated 1:1000 loop at times zero, 72 h, 168 h and 240 h after contamination. Bacterial growth was determined by counting the colonies on blood agar plates 24 hours after each replating. Results: Time zero demonstrated bacterial growth in all media, confirming inoculation. During the subsequent hours no further growth of these microorganisms was observed in perfluoroctane. Both bacteria developed abundantly in the remaining culture media at all times studied. The control flask did not show any bacterial growth. Conclusions: The "in vitro" results show that PFO does not seem to represent a favorable medium for bacterial growth.
Perfluorocarbons; Bacterial growth; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Staphylococcus aureus; In vitro
