Figure 3.

Viral replication kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV viruses in ex-vivo cultures of human respiratory tract, conjunctiva, Caco-2 cells, AECs and macrophages

(A and B) Human ex-vivo cultures of bronchus (n=5) and lung (n=4), were infected with 5 × 10⁵ TCID₅₀ per mL at 37°C. (C) Human ex-vivo cultures of conjunctiva (n=3) were infected with 5 × 10⁵ TCID₅₀ per mL at 33°C. (D) Caco-2 cells (n=3), (E) AECs (n=3) and (F) macrophages (n=3) were infected with the indicated viruses at a MOI of 0·1 cultured at 37°C for 72 h. Culture supernatants were harvested at the indicated times and virus titres were measured by TCID₅₀ assay. Bar charts show the mean (SD). The horizontal dotted line denotes the limit of detection in the TCID₅₀ assay. Statistical significances compared with SARS-CoV-2 are shown and statistical significances with exact p values compared among other viruses are listed in the appendix (p 8). TCID₅₀=50% tissue culture infection dose. SARS-CoV=severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus. MERS-CoV=Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus. H1N1pdm=2009 pandemic influenza H1N1. H5N1=highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus.