Microbiology Video: Testing Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity of Wound and Skin Cleansers
In this Emery Pharma microbiology video our scientist shares insight into our approach for evaluating wound and skin care products, particularly those aimed at treating chronic non-healing wounds.
Chronic non-healing wounds like venous, diabetic, and pressure ulcers pose a significant medical challenge. Infection control is critical in promoting healing, as high bacterial loads and biofilms can impede tissue repair by causing prolonged inflammation and cellular damage. Bacterial biofilms and microbial overload inhibit epithelial cell functions and degrade extracellular matrix, impairing healing. Many wound and skin cleansers, though effective against bacteria, can also harm essential human cells like fibroblasts and keratinocytes, which are necessary for wound closure. The ideal wound cleanser should reduce microbial load and biofilm debris without harming human cells involved in healing.
Emery Pharma’s approach to testing wound and skin cleansers involve cytotoxicity testing using L929 mouse fibroblast cells, to identify non-toxic concentrations of various commercial wound cleansers. This is followed by time-kill assay to evaluated how quickly cleansers kill bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at their non-toxic concentrations. The goal is to find a concentration that achieves 99.99% reduction in viable bacteria cells.
If you’re interested in antimicrobial testing, cytotoxicity testing, and biofilm models please call Emery Pharma at 510-899-8814 or contact us on the web today!
About the Author
Originally authored by Dr. Dmitri Debabov. This article was reviewed and updated on June 6, 2025 by Dr. Janet Liu, current Director of Biology.
