ArticleCardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology
Cardiac macrophage density in Covid-19 infection: relationship to myocyte necrosis and acute lung injury.
Article in Cardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness and Safety of Shengmai San for Viral Myocarditis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Cardiovascular therapeutics · 2024Pooled it
- Immune modulation: the key to combat SARS-CoV-2 induced myocardial injury.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Single Center-Based Real-World Experience on Anti-IL 1 Biological Response Modifiers: A Case Series and Literature Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- New insights gained from cellular landscape changes in myocarditis and inflammatory cardiomyopathy.Heart failure reviews · 2024Review
- SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Stimulates Macropinocytosis in Murine and Human Macrophages via PKC-NADPH Oxidase Signaling.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cell-Specific Mechanisms in the Heart of COVID-19 Patients.Circulation research · 2023Review
- Persistent viral infections and their role in heart disease.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Macrophage, a potential targeted therapeutic immune cell for cardiomyopathy.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Injury mechanism of COVID-19-induced cardiac complications.Cardiology plusReview
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
SARS-Cov-2 infection is not limited to the respiratory tract and can involve other organs including the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract, placenta, and skin. Covid-19 patients with cardiac involvement usually have higher morbidity and mortality compared to those without cardiac involvement. The frequency and the specificity of the myocardial pathological changes in patients who die after documented infection with SARS-Cov-2 is uncertain. Macrophages can be found in the normal heart (interstitium, around the endothelial cells and in the epicardial adipose tissue), and they are considered part of the major immune cell population in the heart. In this case-control autopsy study, we compare the gross and microscopic cardiac findings, and the available clinical characteristics between a group of 10 Covid-19 decedents and a control group of 20 patients who died with non-SARS-Cov-2 severe bronchopneumonia and/or diffuse alveolar damage. The objectives of this semi-quantitative study are to study single myocyte necrosis and its relation to the strain on the heart caused by lung injury as a causative mechanism, and to study the density of myocardial and epicardial macrophages in Covid-19 hearts in comparison to the control group, and in Covid-19 hearts with single myocyte necrosis in comparison to Covid-19 hearts without single myocyte necrosis. Lymphocytic myocarditis was not identified in any of the hearts from the Covid-19 or the control group. Single myocyte necrosis is more frequent in the Covid-19 group compared to the control group, suggesting that it is unrelated to the strain on the heart caused by underlying lung injury. The density of the macrophages in the epicardium and myocardium in the hearts of the Covid-19 group is higher compared to those in the control group. The density of epicardial macrophages is higher in the Covid-19 hearts with single myocyte necrosis than in those without. These observations contribute to our increasing appreciation of the role of macrophages in the pathophysiologic response to infection by SARS-CoV-2.
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