Physicochemical and structural investigation of the surfaces of some anaerobic subgingival bacteria

The surfaces of nine clinical isolates of Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, and Peptostreptococcus micros and that of laboratory strain P. gingivalis W83 were studied by using contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, microelectrophoresis of whole cells, and transmission electron microscopy of whole and sectioned cells. P. intermedia strains were hydrophilic, as judged from their small water contact angles, and had highly negative zeta potentials, consistent with the presence of a prominent ruthenium red (RR)-staining layer and fibrillar appendages which are probably partly carbohydrate. The two clinical isolates of P. gingivalis were also hydrophilic and highly negatively charged despite the presence of prominent fibrils, which usually yield less negative zeta potentials. This finding suggests that the RR-staining layer dominates the suspension characteristics of P. gingivalis and P. intermedia strains. P. gingivalis W83 had no demonstrable fibrils and a morphologically distinct RR-staining layer, and it was more hydrophobic than the two clinical isolates of P. gingivalis. P. micros isolates were hydrophobic and much less negatively charged than the other species. The A. actinomycetemcomitans strains displayed long, prominent fibrils and a very thin RR-staining layer, which resulted in high hydrophobicity but distinctly different zeta potentials for the two. Physicochemical data on microbial cell surfaces usually have clear and predictable relationships with each other. For the strains in this study that did not follow these relationships, their aberrant behavior could be explained as due to a masking effect caused by specific surface architecture. We conclude that this combined analysis provides a detailed image of subgingival bacterial surface architecture.