Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug;2(3):100145.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2020.100145. Epub 2020 May 18.

Vertical transmission of coronavirus disease 2019: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA on the fetal side of the placenta in pregnancies with coronavirus disease 2019-positive mothers and neonates at birth

Luisa Patanè  1 , Denise Morotti  2   3 , Monica Rosaria Giunta  4 , Cristina Sigismondi  4 , Maria Giovanna Piccoli  4 , Luigi Frigerio  4 , Giovanna Mangili  5 , Marco Arosio  6 , Giorgio Cornolti  2
Affiliations

Vertical transmission of coronavirus disease 2019: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA on the fetal side of the placenta in pregnancies with coronavirus disease 2019-positive mothers and neonates at birth

Luisa Patanè et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. 2020 Aug.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
COVID-19–positive mother and neonate (case 1) with SARS-CoV-2 antigens seen in the villous syncytiotrophoblasts on the fetal side of the placenta A, Chorionic villi showing chronic intervillositis with macrophages in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded placental sections using standard brightfield microscopy at 20× magnification. The tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (20×). B, Macrophages in the intervillous spaces highlighted by anti-CD68 immunohistochemistry. C, In situ hybridization for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mRNA, highlighting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens in villous syncytiotrophoblasts. The brown dots are positive signals for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 (indicated by black arrows) inside a syncytiotrophoblast of a chorionic villi cross section. COVID-19, coronavirus 2019; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2. Patanè. SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission. AJOG MFM 2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
COVID-19–positive mother and neonate (case 2), with SARS-CoV-2 antigens seen in the villous syncytiotrophoblasts on the fetal side of the placenta A, Chorionic villi showing chronic intervillositis with macrophages in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded placental sections using standard brightfield microscopy at 20× magnification. The tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (20×). B, Macrophages in the intervillous spaces highlighted by anti-CD68 immunohistochemistry. C, In situ hybridization for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mRNA, highlighting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens in villous syncytiotrophoblasts. The brown dots are positive signals for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 (indicated by black arrows) inside a syncytiotrophoblast of a chorionic villi cross section. COVID-19, coronavirus 2019; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2. Patanè. SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission. AJOG MFM 2020.
Figure 3
Figure 3
COVID-19–positive mother with a COVID-19–negative neonate (case 3) showing the control placenta from which the virus is absent A, Normal chorionic villi of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded placental sections viewed using a standard brightfield microscope at 20× magnification. The tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (20×). B, Normal placental tissues incubated with anti-CD68 antibody. C, In situ hybridization for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mRNA in the absence of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens in the villous syncytiotrophoblasts. COVID-19, coronavirus 2019; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2. Patanè. SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission. AJOG MFM 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang F., Flanagan J., Su N., et al. RNAscope: a novel in situ RNA analysis platform for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. J Mol Diagn. 2012;14:22–29. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Corman V.M., Landt O., Kaiser M., et al. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR. Euro Surveill. 2020;25:2000045. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lamouroux A., Attie-Bitach T., Martinovic J., Leruez-Ville M., Ville Y. Evidence for and against vertical transmission for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 [Epub ahead of print] - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zeng H., Xu C., Fan J., et al. Antibodies in infants born to mothers with COVID-19 pneumonia. JAMA. 2020;323:1848–1849. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang S., Guo L., Chen L., et al. A case report of neonatal COVID-19 infection in China. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 [Epub ahead of print] - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms