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. 2021 Apr 13;35(5):109055. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109055

Figure 1.

Figure 1

SARS-CoV-2 infects normal human proximal airway cells

(A) Workflow for establishment of human proximal airway ALI cultures and their infection with SARS-CoV-2.

(B) ALI cultures of proximal airway epithelial cells are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, indicated by viral N gene copy numbers, which peaked at 2 days postinfection (dpi); n = 3–6 cultures from 2 independent donors. Red and green colors indicate cultures from separate donors. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc correction and represented N gene copy numbers for individual cultures ± SEM. ∗p < 0.05.

(C) Percentage of cells from proximal airway ALI cultures infected with SARS-CoV-2 at 2 dpi. n = 14–15 fields from two biological replicates.

(D and E) FOXJ1-positive ciliated cells (red) (D) and MUC5AC-positive goblet cells (red) (E) infected by SARS-CoV-2 (green). Scale bar, 20 μm. Image magnification = 2.3× with a 20× objective.

(F) Percentage of infected cells that are either ciliated cells or goblet cells.

(G and H) Change in the percentage of (G) ciliated and (H) goblet cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection. (F–H) n = 7–8 fields from two biological replicates. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (significance is determined by two-tailed t test). ∗p < 0.05.