Electrolyzed Water Effectively Destroys Harmful Bacterial Biofilms
- Authors
- Anne-Marie Salisbury, Steven L. Percival
- Journal
- Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
- Year
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.1007/5584_2018_207
- Study Type
- Cell Culture
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Health Condition
- Chronic Wounds
- Body System
- Integumentary
TL;DR
A new type of water treated with electricity and salt can quickly kill bacteria and fungus in wounds without harming human cells.
Key Finding
An electrolysed water formulation reduced bacterial biofilms from two common wound pathogens within 15 minutes while remaining safe to human cells at therapeutic concentrations.
Summary
Researchers tested a special type of water created by passing an electric current through salt water to see if it could kill bacterial biofilms (sticky clusters of bacteria that resist antibiotics). The electrolysed water killed two common wound-causing bacteria effectively within 15 minutes, and at lower concentrations, it didn't harm human cells. This suggests the treatment might help clean infected wounds.
Practical Takeaway
This is early laboratory evidence only—the study used cells in dishes, not human wounds or living organisms. While the results are promising for potential wound care applications, much more research in animals and humans would be needed before any health claims could be made. This work does not involve hydrogen water specifically, but rather electrolysed salt water.
Abstract
Electrolysed water is a basic process whereby an electric current is passed through deionised water containing a low concentration of sodium chloride in an electrolysis chamber, which results in a more complex chemistry resulting in the production of a strong bactericidal and fungicidal solution at the anode. This microbicidal solution contains hypochlorous acid that is fast-acting and environmentally safe, as upon bacterial killing, the equilibrium shifts from hypochlorous acid back to salt and water. Other antimicrobial agents produced in this process include sodium hypochlorite and chlorine. The use of electrolysed water formulations in wound care to control wound bioburden is underway. However, there is limited evidence of the efficacy of electrolysed water on the control of biofilms, which are renowned for their tolerance to a variety of antimicrobials. Therefore this study aimed to assess a new electrolysed water formulation on in vitro Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Results showed that the electrolysed water formulation effectively reduced biofilm in all models following a 15 min contact time. Microbial cell counts confirmed the reduction biofilm bacteria. Additional cytotoxicity using L929 fibroblasts confirmed that a 50% and 25% dilution of the electrolysed water formulation was non-cytotoxic to cells. In conclusion, this study has confirmed that the application of a new electrolysed water product effectively removed biofilm after a short exposure time. The use of this technology as a wound cleanser may help to control existing biofilms in complicated, non-healing wounds.