The effect of prebiotic fibre on the gut microbiome and surgical outcomes in patients with prosthetic joint infection (PENGUIN) - study protocol for a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (ACTRN12623001273673).

Background: Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) is the most devastating complication of arthroplasty surgery and affects 1-5% of patients. Despite strict adherence to aseptic protocols and preventive measures, infection is the most common reason for revision arthroplasty, and the incidence is increasing. Treatment of PJI is challenging and often requires repeated major surgeries with sequentially poor results.

Osteomyelitis-relevant antibiotics at clinical concentrations show limited effectivity against acute and chronic intracellular infections in osteocytes.

Osteomyelitis caused by can involve the persistent infection of osteocytes. We sought to determine if current clinically utilized antibiotics were capable of clearing an intracellular osteocyte infection. Rifampicin, vancomycin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin, amoxicillin, oxacillin, doxycycline, linezolid, gentamicin, and tigecycline were assessed for their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations against 12 strains, at pH 5.

The mouse epididymal amyloid matrix is a mammalian counterpart of a bacterial biofilm.

The mouse epididymis is a long tubule connecting the testis to the vas deferens. Its primary functions are to mature spermatozoa into motile and fertile cells and to protect them from pathogens that ascend the male tract. We previously demonstrated that a functional extracellular amyloid matrix surrounds spermatozoa in the epididymal lumen and has host defense functions, properties not unlike that of an extracellular biofilm that encloses and protects a bacterial community.