Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 May 2;395(10234):1417-1418.
doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30937-5. Epub 2020 Apr 21.

Endothelial cell infection and endotheliitis in COVID-19

Zsuzsanna Varga  1 , Andreas J Flammer  2 , Peter Steiger  3 , Martina Haberecker  1 , Rea Andermatt  3 , Annelies S Zinkernagel  4 , Mandeep R Mehra  5 , Reto A Schuepbach  3 , Frank Ruschitzka  6 , Holger Moch  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Endothelial cell infection and endotheliitis in COVID-19

Zsuzsanna Varga et al. Lancet. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure
Figure
Pathology of endothelial cell dysfunction in COVID-19 (A, B) Electron microscopy of kidney tissue shows viral inclusion bodies in a peritubular space and viral particles in endothelial cells of the glomerular capillary loops. Aggregates of viral particles (arrow) appear with dense circular surface and lucid centre. The asterisk in panel B marks peritubular space consistent with capillary containing viral particles. The inset in panel B shows the glomerular basement membrane with endothelial cell and a viral particle (arrow; about 150 nm in diameter). (C) Small bowel resection specimen of patient 3, stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Arrows point to dominant mononuclear cell infiltrates within the intima along the lumen of many vessels. The inset of panel C shows an immunohistochemical staining of caspase 3 in small bowel specimens from serial section of tissue described in panel D. Staining patterns were consistent with apoptosis of endothelial cells and mononuclear cells observed in the haematoxylin-eosin-stained sections, indicating that apoptosis is induced in a substantial proportion of these cells. (D) Post-mortem lung specimen stained with haematoxylin and eosin showed thickened lung septa, including a large arterial vessel with mononuclear and neutrophilic infiltration (arrow in upper inset). The lower inset shows an immunohistochemical staining of caspase 3 on the same lung specimen; these staining patterns were consistent with apoptosis of endothelial cells and mononuclear cells observed in the haematoxylin-eosin-stained sections. COVID-19=coronavirus disease 2019.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhou F, Yu T, Du R. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2020;395:1054–1062. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Horton R. Offline: COVID-19—bewilderment and candour. Lancet. 2020;395 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ferrario CM, Jessup J, Chappell MC. Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition and angiotensin II receptor blockers on cardiac angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. Circulation. 2005;111:2605–2610. - PubMed
    1. Monteil V KH, Prado P, Hagelkrüys A. Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infections in engineered human tissues using clinical-grade soluble human ACE2. Cell. 2020 https://www.cell.com/pb-assets/products/coronavirus/CELL_CELL-D-20-00739... published online in press. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Flammer AJ, Anderson T, Celermajer DS. The assessment of endothelial function: from research into clinical practice. Circulation. 2012;126:753–767. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms