Scientists have discovered the ability of coronavirus to affect blood cells
Patients showed changes in lymphocyte stiffness, monocyte size, and neutrophil deformability. Changes can impede circulation and cause oxygen deficiency, scientists say
CORONAVIRUS patients can change the size and stiffness of red and white blood cells, a study of blood samples from more than 50 people showed. The results of a study by scientists from the Max Planck Center for Physics and Medicine and the German Center for Immunotherapy were published by the Biophysical Journal.
Scientists analyzed data from 17 patients with various phases of coronavirus, 14 recovering patients and 24 healthy people included in the control group. Experts studied more than 4 million blood cells of patients and compared them with those of healthy people.
video
“We found significant changes in lymphocyte stiffness, monocyte size, neutrophil size and deformability, and heterogeneity in red blood cell change and size,” the publication says.
Such changes, according to scientists, can impede blood circulation and contribute to hypoxemia - a reduced amount of oxygen in the blood.
New strain in India. The latest about the pandemic on June 21 Society
In some patients, the state of blood cells returned to baseline a few months after recovery, while the recovery of other patients was significantly delayed, the researchers noted.
Video for this newsEarlier, the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, said that almost 90% of patients with covid-19 in Moscow had an Indian strain. Those infected with the Indian variant of the pathogen are more likely to develop diarrhea, hearing loss, severe stomach upset and blood clots, and the latter can lead to gangrene, Indian infectious disease specialist Abdul Ghafoor told BLOOMBERG.