Nanocrystalline diamond surface is resistant to bacterial colonization

Susceptibility of medical steel, titanium and medical steel coated with nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) to bacterial colonization was investigated. Number of bacteria at the surface was estimated with fluorescence microscopy inspection. It was found that efficiency of bacterial settlement depends on the presence of proteins in the surrounding media and that NCD surface exhibits the highest resistance to this process, significantly higher than that of titanium. The resistance of medical steel is very poor. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.