Inactivation of Bacteria at High Pressure

摘要

Hydrostatic pressure (HP) is a thermodynamic parameter which stimulates processes that are accompanied by negative volume changes. Although it is very difficult to give a detailed physical meaning of the pressure effect for biochemical transformation, this technique has got a great application in food biotechnology. Pressure affects a secondary and tertiary structure causing its unfolding and dissociation of oligomers and high molecular weight complexes. In this paper we described the effect of the high pressure on inactivation of pathogenic bacteria Bordetella pertussis. Whole bacterial cells were pressured in different conditions. It turned out that pressure around 2 kbars during 2 - 4 hours caused significant inactivation of B. pertussis.