Biocompatibility Analysis of an Electrically-Activated Silver-Based Antibacterial Surface System for Medical Device Applications

The costs associated with the treatment of medical device and surgical site infections are a major cause of concern in the global healthcare system. To pre- vent transmission of such infections, a prophylactic surface system that provides protracted release of antibacterial silver ions using low intensity direct electric current (LIDC; 28 muA system current at 6 V) activation has been recently developed. To ensure the safety for future in vivo studies and potential clinical applications, this study assessed the biocompatibility of the LIDC-activated inter-digitated silver electrodes-based surface system; in vitro toxicity to human epidermal keratinocytes, human dermal fibroblasts, and normal human osteoblasts, and antibacterial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus and Esche-richia coli was evaluated. The study concluded that the technological applications of the surface system for medical devices and surgical tools, which contact human tissues for less than 1.5 h, are expected to be self-sterilizing without causing toxicity in vivo.
Published in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, p1-6, 16 December 2012.