Human Kidney is a Target for Novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection

Bo Diao; Chenhui Wang; Rongshuai Wang; Zeqing Feng; Yingjun Tan; Huiming Wang; Changsong Wang; Liang Liu; Ying Liu; Yueping Liu; Gang Wang; Zilin Yuan; Liang Ren; Yuzhang Wu; Yongwen Chen

Next, the histopathological examination was performed by H&E-staining in kidney specimens from autopsy of six COVID-19 subjects with observed renal function impairment. Varying degrees of acute tubular necrosis, luminal brush border sloughing and vacuole degeneration, were found in different areas of all six renal specimens. Severe infiltration of lymphocytes in the tubulointerstitium was observed in two patients, and moderate infiltration was seen in three cases, and the remaining one case manifested absence of lymphocyte infiltration. Moreover, viral infection associated-syncytia were also observed in three cases. At the same time, dilated capillary vessels were observed in the glomeruli of these 6 cases. Nevertheless, severe glomerular injury was absent in all of these six cases, although benign hypertensive glomerulosclerosis and autolysis were noted in three hypertensive patients (Figure 1, Table 2) . Collectively, these results demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection mainly induces severe acute tubular necrosis and lymphocyte infiltration.