SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association?

Resta, Leonardo; Vimercati, Antonella; Cazzato, Gerardo; Fanelli, Margherita; Scarcella, Sara Vincenza; Ingravallo, Giuseppe; Colagrande, Anna; Sablone, Sara; Stolfa, Mary; Arezzo, Francesca; Lettini, Teresa; Rossi, Roberta

doi:10.3390/v14061330

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SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association?

^1,†

^2,†

^1,*,†

Sara Vincenza Scarcella

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²,

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Section of Pathology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO), University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy

Section of Ginecology and Obstetrics, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology (DIMO), University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy

Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Bari Policlinico Hospital, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editors: Oliver Schildgen and Andrew Davidson

Viruses 2022, 14(6), 1330; https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061330

Received: 4 January 2022 / Revised: 11 May 2022 / Accepted: 13 June 2022 / Published: 18 June 2022

(This article belongs to the Section SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19)

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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. View Full-Text

Keywords: placenta; SARS-CoV-2; ACE-2; immunohistochemistry; CD4; CD8; RT-PCR; immunopathology

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MDPI and ACS Style

Resta, L.; Vimercati, A.; Cazzato, G.; Fanelli, M.; Scarcella, S.V.; Ingravallo, G.; Colagrande, A.; Sablone, S.; Stolfa, M.; Arezzo, F.; Lettini, T.; Rossi, R. SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association? Viruses 2022, 14, 1330. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061330

AMA Style

Resta L, Vimercati A, Cazzato G, Fanelli M, Scarcella SV, Ingravallo G, Colagrande A, Sablone S, Stolfa M, Arezzo F, Lettini T, Rossi R. SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association? Viruses. 2022; 14(6):1330. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061330

Chicago/Turabian Style

Resta, Leonardo, Antonella Vimercati, Gerardo Cazzato, Margherita Fanelli, Sara V. Scarcella, Giuseppe Ingravallo, Anna Colagrande, Sara Sablone, Mary Stolfa, Francesca Arezzo, Teresa Lettini, and Roberta Rossi. 2022. "SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association?" Viruses 14, no. 6: 1330. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061330

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SARS-CoV-2, Placental Histopathology, Gravity of Infection and Immunopathology: Is There an Association?

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