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. 2021 Jun 2;120(14):2838–2847. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.05.025

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Altered physical phenotype of neutrophils in the peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients. Typical scatter plot of neutrophil deformation versus cell size (cross-sectional area) of a healthy blood donor with no known viral infection (A) compared with a patient 4 months after undergoing COVID-19 (B) and a patient with COVID-19 in an intensive care unit (C) is given. (D) Images of neutrophils marked by corresponding numbers in the scatter plots. (E) Kernel density estimate plots demonstrating the differences in cell size and deformation among the three donors (A–C). (F) The median cross-sectional area and (G) median cell volume of neutrophils of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (yellow, n = 17) are significantly higher than those of the healthy blood donors (gray, n = 24) and of recovered patients approximately 5 months after undergoing COVID-19 (green, n = 14). (H) Neutrophils exhibit increased deformability in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared with the healthy cohort. (I) Young’s modulus of neutrophils of the three donor groups. (J) Young’s modulus of neutrophils in three patients measured at two time points: during COVID-19 and after recovery. Circle markers represent the median value, and error bars represent SD. Statistical comparisons for (F)–(I) were done using Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s post hoc test and for (J) using linear mixed model analysis; ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001.