Fig. 3: Inflammation of adrenal glands from patients who died of COVID-19 or influenza. | Nature Communications

Fig. 3: Inflammation of adrenal glands from patients who died of COVID-19 or influenza.

From: Adrenal tropism of SARS-CoV-2 and adrenal findings in a post-mortem case series of patients with severe fatal COVID-19

Fig. 3: Inflammation of adrenal glands from patients who died of COVID-19 or influenza.

H&E sections of adrenal glands of COVID-19 patients (A) and influenza patients (n = 30) (B) (overview scale bar = 800 µm and magnified inlet scale bar = 50 µm) reveal lymphohistiocytic infiltrate in the adrenal cortex of COVID-19 patients. Multiplex immunofluorescence of adrenal glands (n = 19) (D–G, scale bar = 50 µm) shows that infiltrates consisted of CD4 (D, yellow), CD8 (E, green), and CD68 (F, red) positive cells (DAPI counterstain in blue). Box and Whisker plots (H, I) display lower quartile, upper quartile, and median bounds of cohort expression at the box’s minima, maxima, and centerlines, respectively. Whisker lines display lower (bottom) and upper (top) extreme value ranges. p values were calculated by an unpaired two-sided Student’s t-test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Quantification of cell types reveals a significantly higher number (p < 0.0001) of CD4 (H), CD8 (I), and CD68 (J) positive cells in patients with COVID-19 compared to influenza. In the center of inflammatory infiltrates (n = 19) single-cell apoptosis could be detected by immunohistochemistry of cleaved caspase 3 (C, scale bar corresponds to 10 µm).

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