A New Approach to Fighting Infections Related to Bone Implant Surgery

The risk of developing an infection during implant surgery is estimated at 1 to 2%. When an infection occurs, it often progresses to a chronic condition involving highly resistant bacterial biofilms (approximately one case out of two), which is extremely problematic for patients, as it significantly reduces their quality of life. Moreover, the management of such conditions represents a substantial cost for society. Although this infection rate may appear low, it remains very difficult to reduce, as does the challenge of effectively supporting affected patients. Researchers and engineers from the BIOS laboratory and IREPA LASER are addressing this issue by exploring a new approach: laser texturing of prosthetic surfaces to limit the colonisation of bacteria responsible for infections

The exploratory project “InVitrOs”, funded by Carnot MICA, has two main objectives:

– to understand how infections develop on prostheses by creating a specific titanium model in a biological environment closely resembling in vivo conditions.

– to assess the impact of different laser texturing patterns applied to the most commonly used clinical titanium alloy on the behaviour of the bacteria most frequently involved in prosthetic infections, namely Staphylococcus aureus.

The researchers aim to reduce bacterial proliferation on prostheses through appropriate laser surface texturing, thereby preventing the formation of biofilms.

The contributions of this project are numerous :

A novel, tailor-made support designed to hold titanium alloy samples was specifically developed using 3D printing to meet the needs of the programme. This design prevents contamination by gravity from bacteria not belonging to the biofilm and opens up promising new research perspectives for the scientific community, thanks to this unprecedented model enabling bacterial culture under conditions very close to real-life scenarios.

During the project, IREPA LASER engineers tested around fifteen different texturing patterns on titanium samples by varying the duration and power of laser pulses applied to the surface. Following a screening of the different texturing models, the results of the biological studies are promising. One particular type of texture appears to significantly reduce colonisation by Staphylococcus aureus, thereby lowering the risk of biofilm formation. These initial findings will lead to further in-depth studies, including tests on additional bacterial species to validate the universality of the observed effect

Today, researchers now have access to a unique new culture support. The knowledge gained through this project also opens up new perspectives for the development of anti-infective strategies. The approach can be applied to the study of any surface susceptible to biofilm formation, making it possible to address a wide range of issues, including biofouling-related challenges