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. 2020 Aug 19;183(1):143–157.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.025

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© 2020 Elsevier Inc.

Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

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Loss of Germinal Center Type Bcl-6⁺ T Follicular Helper Cells in COVID-19 Lymph Nodes and Spleens

(A) Representative multi-color immunofluorescence image of CD4 (red), ICOS (green), and DAPI (blue) staining in lymph nodes from early (left) and late (middle) COVID-19 patients and a non-COVID-19 control (right). Arrows indicate CD4⁺ ICOS⁺ T_FH cells.

(B) Representative multi-color immunofluorescence images of CD4 (red), Bcl-6 (white), and DAPI (blue) staining in lymph nodes from early (left) and late (middle) COVID-19 patients and a non-COVID-19 control (right). Arrows indicate CD4⁺ Bcl6⁺ GC-type T_FH cells.

(C) Representative multi-color immunofluorescence images of CD4 (red), ICOS (green), and DAPI (blue) staining in spleens from early (left) and late (middle) COVID-19 patients and a control (right).

(D) Representative multi-color immunofluorescence images of CD4 (red), Bcl-6 (white), and DAPI (blue) staining in spleens from early (left) and late (middle) COVID-19 patients and a control (right).

(E and F) Absolute numbers and relative proportions of CD4⁺ ICOS⁺ T_FH cells (E) and CD4⁺ Bcl-6⁺ GC-type T_FH cells (F) in lymph nodes from COVID-19 patients (purple, n = 11) and non-COVID-19 patients (blue, n = 6). COVID-19 samples include early (purple, n = 5) and late (red, n = 6) COVID-19 patients.

(G and H) Relative proportions of CD4⁺ ICOS⁺ T_FH cells (G) and CD4⁺ Bcl-6⁺ GC-type T_FH (H) in spleens from COVID-19 patients (purple, n = 10) and controls (blue, n = 7). COVID-19 samples include early (purple, n = 4) and late (red, n = 6) COVID-19 patients.

Mann-Whitney U test used to calculate p value. Error bars represent mean ± SEM. ^∗p < 0.05; ^∗∗p < 0.01; ^∗∗∗p < 0.001. See also Figures S2, S3, and S4 and Tables S1, S2, and S3.