Figure.

SARS-CoV-2 ultrastructural morphology in autolytic autopsy lung

In lung autopsy tissue showing marked autolysis, we found single cells with numerous well preserved SARS-CoV-2 particles. (A) The ultrastructure of the cell is severely affected and does not clearly identify the cell type. Boxed regions are magnified in panels B and C, in which many of the round and oval particles show characteristic morphological features of SARS-CoV-2. (C) The white asterisks show well preserved viral particles that appeared free within the cytoplasm, probably due to rupture of membrane compartments. The white arrow points to well preserved viral particles within ruptured membrane compartments, and the green arrows point to viral particles within intact membrane compartments. These images were acquired with a scanning electron microscope in transmission mode. A high-resolution dataset of the cell (A, C), digitised at 1 nm pixel size, is available online for open access pan-and-zoom analysis, also allowing for measurements of structures of interest to provide a positive control of coronavirus identification in autopsy tissue. SARS-CoV-2=severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.