Single-nucleus transcriptional profiling of the placenta reveals the syncytiotrophoblast stress response to COVID-19

It is poorly understood how maternal covid-19 results in severe placental disorders. Single nuclei sequencing (sci-rna-seq3) was used to profle transcriptomic changes in the human placenta in response to maternal COVID-19. Overall design: sci-rna-seq3 was performed on 4 placentas from healthy control patients, and 4 placentas from patients with symtpomatic COVID-19 during the third trimester, and 1 placenta from a patient with symptomatic COVID-19 in the second trimester that was harvested at term post recovery