Artificial Sputum Medium

Abstract

The arti cial sputum medium \(ASM) was formulated to mimic the sputum of cystic brosis \(CF) patients. The intra-and inter-patient variation in the composition of highly viscous CF sputum complicates the achievement of a reproducible culture condition to study microbial bio lms, for example, _Pseudomonas aeruginosa_ colonization in the CF lung. However, the ASM is a homogenous non-viscous medium, which can be prepared in bulk quantities using a xed set of ingredients. The conventional bio lm models always had cells attached to a solid biotic or abiotic surface submerged in a steady-state or continuous ow of culture medium. In contrast, _P. aeruginosa_ grows in the CF lung under microaerophilic to anaerobic conditions in the form of microcolonies eventually forming a macroaggregate/colony in which bacteria adhere to each other and to sputum components. Similarly, in ASM, _P. aeruginosa_ forms micro-and macro-colonies and showed various phenotypes speci c to CF isolates.