Evaluation of Antibiotic Resistance Pattern, Alginate and Biofilm Production in Clinical Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most common opportunistic bacteria causing nosocomial infections, which has significant resistance to antimicrobial agents. This bacterium is a biofilm and alginate producer. Biofilm increases the bacterial resistance to antibiotics and the immune system. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the biofilm formation, alginate production and antimicrobial resistance patterns in the clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.

  One hundred isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected during the study period (from Dec 2017 to Jul 2018) from different clinical samples of the patients admitted to Milad and Pars Hospitals at Tehran, Iran. Isolates were identified and confirmed by phenotypic and genotypic methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility was specified by the disk diffusion method. Biofilm formation and alginate production were measured by microtiter plate and carbazole assay, respectively.

Sixteen isolates were resistant to all the 12 studied antibiotics. Moreover, 31 isolates were Multidrug-Resistant (MDR). The highest resistance rate was related to ofloxacin (36 isolates) and the least resistance was related to piperacillin-tazobactam (21 isolates). All the isolates could produce the biofilm and alginate. The number of isolates producing strong, medium and weak biofilms was equal to 34, 52, and 14, respectively. Alginate production was more than 400 μg/ml in 39 isolates, 250-400 μg/ml in 51 isolates and less than 250 μg/ml in 10 isolates.

High prevalence of MDR, biofilm formation, and alginate production were observed among the clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa. The results also showed a significant relationship between the amount of alginate production and the level of biofilm formation.