Curcumin as a Promising Antibacterial Agent: Effects on Metabolism and Biofilm Formation in S. mutans

Figure 4

CLSM images of S. mutans biofilm. (a, b) Three-dimensional reconstructions of the untreated (control) biofilm, the 500 μM curcumin-treated biofilm, and the 0.12% chlorhexidine-treated biofilm at 5 min (a) and 24 h (b). EPS was labelled in red (Alexa Fluor 647), bacterial cells were labelled in green (SYTO9), and red and green superimposed appear as yellow. Images were obtained at 20x magnification. (c) Image representing the volume of EPS, calculated according to 5 random sites of each sample, repeated three times. (d) Change in biofilm thickness at 5 min and 24 h, respectively, calculated from data obtained from fluorescence CLSM. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. The asterisks () indicate significant differences (, ).

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