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Comment
. 2021 Oct;70(10):2015-2017.
doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323542. Epub 2021 Jan 5.

Serotonin is elevated in COVID-19-associated diarrhoea

Seeun Ha #  1 , Byungchang Jin #  1 , Brooke Clemmensen  1 , Paul Park  1 , Sumaiya Mahboob  2 , Vadim Gladwill  2 , Farah Madhani Lovely  3 , Andres Gottfried-Blackmore  4 , Aida Habtezion  4 , Subhash Verma  5 , Seungil Ro  6
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Comment

Serotonin is elevated in COVID-19-associated diarrhoea

Seeun Ha et al. Gut. 2021 Oct.
Free PMC article
No abstract available

Keywords: COVID-19; diarrhoea; serotonin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Profiles of plasma 5-HT and 5-HIAA in patients with COVID-19 with different severity and diarrhoea. (A–C) Plasma levels of 5-HT in a group of healthy individuals (n=18) and patients with COVID-19 (n=80) (A), in a group of healthy individuals and patients with COVID-19 with asymptomatic, mild, severe and critical conditions (B), and in a group of healthy individuals and patients with COVID-19 with and without diarrhoea (with diarrhoea n=10, without diarrhoea n=70) (C). (D–F) Plasma levels of 5-HIAA in a group of healthy individuals (n=18) and patients with COVID-19 (n=80) (D), in a group of healthy individuals and patients with COVID-19 with asymptomatic, mild, severe and critical conditions (E), and in a group of healthy individuals and patients with COVID-19 with and without diarrhoea (F). (G and H) Comparison of plasma 5-HIAA to 5-HT ratio in patients with COVID-19 with different severity and in a group of healthy individuals (G) and patients with COVID-19 with and without diarrhoea (H). (I) Correlation matrix of severity, fever, IL-6, 5-HT, 5-HIAA and GI symptoms in patients with COVID-19. Correlation matrix shows the Spearman’s rank correlation among severity (asymptomatic, 1; mild, 2; severe, 3; critical, 4), fever, IL-6, 5-HT and GI symptoms (diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and GI bleeding) in patients with COVID-19 (n=80). A correlation number of 1.0 or −1.0 indicates 100% of patients with a positive (blue) or negative (red) correlation. Statistical analysis was performed with two-way analysis of variance. P<0.05 was considered significant (*p<0.05, **p<0.01). 5-HIAA, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid; 5-HT, 5-hydroxytryptamine; IL-6, interleukin 6.
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