PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Markéta Kubánková
AU  - Bettina Hohberger
AU  - Jakob Hoffmanns
AU  - Julia Fürst
AU  - Martin Herrmann
AU  - Jochen Guck
AU  - Martin Kräter
TI  - Physical phenotype of blood cells is altered in COVID-19
AID  - 10.1101/2021.02.12.429482
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.02.12.429482
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/12/2021.02.12.429482.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/12/2021.02.12.429482.full
AB  - Clinical syndrome coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is characterized by rapid spreading and high mortality worldwide. While the pathology is not yet fully understood, hyper-inflammatory response and coagulation disorders leading to congestions of microvessels are considered to be key drivers of the still increasing death toll. Until now, physical changes of blood cells have not been considered to play a role in COVID-19 related vascular occlusion and organ damage. Here we report an evaluation of multiple physical parameters including the mechanical features of five frequent blood cell types, namely erythrocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils. More than 4 million blood cells of 17 COVID-19 patients at different levels of severity, 24 volunteers free from infectious or inflammatory diseases, and 14 recovered COVID-19 patients were analyzed. We found significant changes in erythrocyte deformability, lymphocyte stiffness, monocyte size, and neutrophil size and deformability. While some of these changes recovered to normal values after hospitalization, others persisted for months after hospital discharge, evidencing the long-term imprint of COVID-19 on the body.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.