Figure 1

SARS-CoV-2 infects ECs. (A) Quantitative PCR analysis for ACE2 in early passage (P3) and replicative senescent (P20) HUVECs (n = 4 each). Target genes expression was normalized to 18S expression levels. (B) Quantitative PCR analysis for ACE2 in Calu-3 cells and early passage or replicative senescent ECs (n = 3 each). ACE2 expression was normalized to 18S expression levels. (C) Quantitative PCR analysis for SARS-CoV-2 ORF1ab in early passage and replicative senescent ECs infected with SARS-CoV-2 at 1 MOI (n = 4 for senescent EC-no infection; n = 6 each for others). ORF1ab expression was normalized to 18S expression levels. (D) Representative images of immunocytochemistry for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (red fluorescence) in early passage and replicative senescent HUVECs infected with SARS-CoV-2 (50 MOI) at 6 hpi. Bars: 100 μm. Spike-staining was quantitatively analyzed (n = 12 each). (E) SARS-CoV-2 attachment on early passage and replicative senescent HUVECs was analyzed using quantitative PCR for ORF1ab (n = 6 each). Statistical analyses were performed using two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test (A,B), while Mann Whitney U-test were used for D and E. One-way ANOVA with Fisher’s LSD post hoc test was used for statistical analysis between multiple groups (C). Data are presented as mean ± SE *P < 0.05, ****P < 0.0001 and #Not significant.