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

• Published in: Central-European journal of immunology Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 97 - 110
• Main Authors: Hussein, Hosni A. M., Thabet, Ali A. A., Mohamed, Taha I. A., Elnosary, Mohamed E., Sobhy, Ali, El-Adly, Ahmed M., Wardany, Ahmed A., Bakhiet, Elsayed K., Afifi, Magdy M., Abdulraouf, Usama M., Fathy, Samah . M., Sayed, Noha G., Zahran, Asmaa M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Termedia Publishing House 01-01-2023
• Subjects: Clinical Immunology; covid-19; hematopoietic progenitor cells (hpcs); hematopoietic stem cells (hscs); sars-cov-2
• ISSN: 1426-3912; 1644-4124
• DOI: 10.5114/ceji.2023.129981

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.