Central European Journal of Immunology (Jul 2023)

Phenotypical changes of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in COVID-19 patients: Correlation with disease status

  • Hosni A. M. Hussein,
  • Ali A. A. Thabet,
  • Taha I. A. Mohamed,
  • Mohamed E. Elnosary,
  • Ali Sobhy,
  • Ahmed M. El-Adly,
  • Ahmed A. Wardany,
  • Elsayed K. Bakhiet,
  • Magdy M. Afifi,
  • Usama M. Abdulraouf,
  • Samah . M. Fathy,
  • Noha G. Sayed,
  • Asmaa M. Zahran

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5114/ceji.2023.129981
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 48, no. 2
pp. 97 – 110

Abstract

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Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) play a crucial role in the context of viral infections and their associated diseases. The link between HSCs and HPCs and disease status in COVID-19 patients is largely unknown. This study aimed to monitor the kinetics and contributions of HSCs and HPCs in severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients and to evaluate their diagnostic performance in differentiating between healthy and COVID-19 patients as well as severe and non-severe cases. Peripheral blood (PB) samples were collected from 48 COVID-19 patients, 16 recovered, and 27 healthy controls and subjected to deep flow cytometric analysis to determine HSCs and progenitor cells. Their diagnostic value and correlation with C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, and ferritin levels were determined. The percentages of HSCs and common myeloid progenitors (CMPs) declined significantly, while the percentage of multipotent progenitors (MPPs) increased significantly in COVID-19 patients. There were no significant differences in the percentages of megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitors (MEPs) and granulocyte-macrophage progenitors (GMPs) between all groups. Severe COVID-19 patients had a significantly low percentage of HSCs, CMPs, and GMPs compared to non-severe cases. Contrarily, the levels of CRP, D-dimer, and ferritin increased significantly in severe COVID-19 patients. MPPs and CMPs showed excellent diagnostic performance in distinguishing COVID-19 patients from healthy controls and severe from non-severe COVID-19 patients, respectively. Collectively, our study indicated that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells are significantly altered by COVID-19 and could be used as therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers for severe COVID-19.

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