APPLIED MICROBIAL AND CELL PHYSIOLOGY Self-organised nanoarchitecture of titanium surfaces influences the attachment of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria Vi Khanh Truong 1 & Vy T. H. Pham 1 & Alexander Medvedev 2 & Rimma Lapovok 2 & Yuri Estrin 2 & Terry C. Lowe 4 & Vladimir Baulin 5 & Veselin Boshkovikj 1 & Christopher J. Fluke 3 & Russell J. Crawford 1 & Elena P. Ivanova 1 Received: 22 January 2015 /Revised: 22 March 2015 /Accepted: 24 March 2015 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Abstract The surface nanotopography and architecture of medical implant devices are important factors that can control the extent of bacterial attachment. The ability to prevent bac- terial attachment substantially reduces the possibility of a pa- tient receiving an implant contracting an implant-borne infec- tion. We now demonstrated that two bacterial strains, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, exhib- ited different attachment affinities towards two types of mo- lecularly smooth titanium surfaces each possessing a different nanoarchitecture. It was found that the attachment of S. aureus cells was not restricted on surfaces that had an average rough- ness (S a ) less than 0.5 nm. In contrast, P. aeruginosa cells were found to be unable to colonise surfaces possessing an average roughness below 1 nm, unless sharp nanoprotrusions of ap- proximately 20 nm in size and spaced 35.0 nm apart were present. It is postulated that the enhanced attachment of P. aeruginosa onto the surfaces possessing these nanoprotrusions was facilitated by the ability of the cell mem- brane to stretch over the tips of the nanoprotrusions as con- firmed through computer simulation, together with a concom- itant increase in the level of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) being produced by the bacterial cells. Keywords Bacterial attachment . Surface nanoarchitecture . Molecularly smooth surfaces . Staphylococcus aureus . Pseudomonas aeruginosa Introduction Despite many years of intensive experimental and theoretical investigation into understanding the physical, chemical and biological aspects of cell–surface interactions, our understand- ing of these phenomena is largely limited to interactions on the macro- and micro-length scales; only scarce information is currently available pertaining to the fundamental behaviour of cells when they are in contact with the nanoscale environ- ment on a surface. Recent advances in micro- and nanofabrication technologies have allowed surfaces to be modified on a scale ranging from a few microns to molecular levels (Tay et al. 2011; Torres et al. 2008). Surfaces containing micro-, nanoscale and molecular-scale roughness were engineered and used as substrates with a view to understand- ing the mechanisms by which different bacterial strains attach to the surface (Anselme et al. 2010; Crawford et al. 2012; Díaz et al. 2007; Park et al. 2008; Puckett et al. 2010; Teughels et al. 2006; Whitehead et al. 2005). It was shown that the attach- ment patterns of these cells can be variable and are a function of the micro-scale patterns present on the surfaces (Díaz et al. 2007; Fadeeva et al. 2011; Ploux et al. 2009; Whitehead et al. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00253-015-6572-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Elena P. Ivanova eivanova@swin.edu.au 1 School of Science, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia 2 Centre for Advanced Hybrid Materials, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia 3 Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia 4 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA 5 Departament d’Enginyeria Quimica, Universitat Rovirai Virgili, 26 Avenue dels Paisos Catalans, Tarragona 43007, Spain Appl Microbiol Biotechnol DOI 10.1007/s00253-015-6572-7