VCOM Research Day Program Book 2023

Medical Student Research Biomedical

32 The Role of Extracellular Matrix Components on Biofilm Formation in Staphylococcus Aureus Endocarditis Isolates

Allen Saar; Jessica Gilbertie, DVM, PhD Corresponding author: asaar@vt.vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Virginia Campus

Infective Endocarditis, a focused infection of endocardial heart tissue, is a rare but life-threatening condition becoming increasingly more common in the United States. With 40,000-50,000 new cases per year and an average hospital cost of $120,000 per patient, the resource burden associated with these infections is significant on our healthcare system. 1 Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of infectious endocarditis, with it being responsible for one-third of all cases and is associated with aggressive disease and severe morbidity and mortality. 2,4 The ability of S. aureus endocarditis isolates to bind collagen has been identified as a virulence factor. A void exists in the literature on the impact of extracellular matrix components (ECM) of heart tissue on S. aureus’s biofilm production. 5 Type I collagen and type III collagen are abundantly found in endocardial heart ECM, and increase in concentration in response to tissue damage, an important risk factor for infective endocarditis. Important ECMs also include fibronectin, laminin, and elastin. 3,6 Because of this, our study aims to examine the effects of type I collagen, type III collagen, elastin, laminin, and fibronectin on the biofilm formation of S. aureus endocarditis isolates.

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Hienz, S. A., Schennings, T., Heimdahl, A., & Flock, J. I. (1996). Collagen binding of Staphylococcus aureus is a virulence factor in experimental endocarditis. The Journal of Infectious Diseases , 174 (1), 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/ INFDIS/174.1.83 Pinkert, M. A., Hortensius, R. A., Ogle, B. M., & Eliceiri, K. W. (2018). Imaging the Cardiac Extracellular Matrix. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology , 1098 , 21. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-97421-7_2

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