Recent Publications

Stuhlmann Lab (topic: Uterine and Placental Biology)

Argueta LB, Lacko LA, Bram Y, Tada T, Carrau L, Rendeiro AF, Zhang T, Uhl S, Lubor BC, Chandar V, Gil C, Zhang W, Dodson BJ, Bastiaans J, Prabhu M, Houghton S, Redmond D, Salvatore CM, Yang YJ, Elemento O, Baergen RN, tenOever BR, Landau NR, Chen S, Schwartz RE, Stuhlmann H. Inflammatory Responses in the Placenta upon SARS-CoV-2 Infection Late in Pregnancy.  iScience. 104223  Online ahead of print (2022).

The effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on placental function is not well understood. In this study, we analyzed placentas from women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at delivery. SARS-CoV-2 genomic and subgenomic RNA as detected in 22 out of 52 placentas. Placentas from two mothers with symptomatic COVID-19 whose pregnancies resulted in adverse outcomes for the fetuses contained high levels of viral Alpha variant RNA. The RNA was localized to the trophoblasts that cover the fetal chorionic villi and that are in direct contact with maternal blood. The intervillous spaces and chorionic villi were infiltrated with maternal macrophages and T cells. Transcriptome analysis showed increased expression of chemokines and pathways associated with viral infection and inflammation. Infection of placental cultures ex vivo with live SARS-CoV-2 and with spike protein-pseudotyped lentivirus showed infection of syncytiotrophoblast and, in rare cases, endothelial cells mediated by ACE2 and Neuropilin-1. Viruses with Alpha, Beta and Delta variant spikes infected the placental cultures at significantly greater levels.

The findings show that SARS-CoV-2 infection late in pregnancy can lead to severe inflammatory responses. They further highlight the importance of preventing infections during pregnancy through vaccination, and for monitoring the health of COVID-19 mothers and their infants in order to identify possible long-term clinical impacts.