SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association?
Viruses
; 14(6)2022 06 18.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1964107
ABSTRACT
(1) Background:
As the pandemic months progress, more and more evidence shows that the placenta acts as a "barrier" to SARS-CoV-2, although rare cases of vertical transmission have been described. (2)Methods:
In an attempt to investigate whether the symptoms' severity was related to different placental histological characteristics and the immune microenvironment, we subdivided 29 placentas from 29 mothers positive for SARS-CoV-2 into two groups, depending on the symptomatology (moderate/severe vs. asymptomatic/mild), performing immunohistochemical investigations for CD4 + and CD8 + T lymphocytes, as well as for CD68 + macrophage. We also evaluated the immuno-expression of the ACE2 receptor at the placental level. These two groups were compared to a control group of 28 placentas from 28 SARS-CoV-2-negative healthy mothers. (3)Results:
The symptoms (likely to be related to viremia) were statistically significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with histopathological changes, such as maternal malperfusion, decidual arteriopathy, blood vessel thrombus of fetal relevance. Furthermore, the immuno-expression of ACE2 was significantly lower in SARS-CoV-2-positive groups vs. control group (p = 0.001). (4)Conclusions:
There is still much to study and discover regarding the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and histological changes in placentas and how the latter might contribute to various neonatal clinical outcomes, such as prematurity.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant, Newborn
/
Pregnancy
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
V14061330
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