Fig. 6: The disturbed immune system in the lungs of patients with COVID-19.
From: A single-cell transcriptomic landscape of the lungs of patients with COVID-19
a, UMAP plots showing immune cells in the lungs of the Control (left) and COVID-19 (right) groups; n = 8,000 cells each. b, Proportions of different immune cell types in the lungs of the Control and COVID-19 groups. Asterisks indicate significant differences in the cell proportions between the two groups. The dashed line denotes a cell proportion of 50%. c, M1/M2 ratios in alveolar (AM) and interstitial (IM) macrophages in the lungs of the Control and COVID-19 groups. d, Immunohistology analysis of the macrophage marker CD68 (left) in the lungs of the Control and COVID-19 groups. Scale bars, 50 μm (main images) and 10 μm (magnified images). Quantitative data are shown as the mean ± s.e.m. Control, n = 13 lungs; and COVID-19, n = 5 lungs, with samples from three lung lobes each. Two-tailed t-test P values are indicated. Alveolar diagrams showing the infiltration of immune cells and macrophage polarization in the lungs of patients with COVID-19 (right). e, Venn diagram showing the genes that are shared by the groups of genes related to ‘myeloid leukocyte activation’, ‘cytokine signalling in immune system’ and ‘SARS-CoV infections’ (left). Heatmap showing COVID-19 DEGs related to SARS-CoV infections in different immune cell types (right). f, Network showing the cell-cell communications across all cell types in the lungs of patients with COVID-19 compared with those in the Control group. Red lines indicate increased cell–cell interactions in the COVID-19 group. Blue lines indicate decreased cell-cell interactions in the COVID-19 group. g, GO term and pathway enrichment analysis of specific cell-cell communications in the lungs of patients with COVID-19. h, Heatmap showing the cell–cell communications in the lungs of patients with COVID-19 compared with the Control group. AM.M1, M1 alveolar macrophage; AM.M2, M2 alveolar macrophage; IM.M1, M1 interstitial macrophage; IM.M2, M2 interstitial macrophage; Pro.mono, proliferative monocyte; Mono.macro, mononuclear macrophage; DN.T, doublet negative (CD4-CD8-) T cells; and the remaining cell-type abbreviations as per Fig. 2a.
