Vascular inflammation exposes perivascular cells to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Pericytes stabilize blood vessels and promote vascular barrier function. However, vessels subjected to pro-inflammatory conditions have impaired barrier function, which has been suggested to potentially expose perivascular cells to SARS-CoV-2. To test this hypothesis, we engineered pericyte-supported vascular capillaries on-a-chip, and determined that the extravasation and binding of spike protein (S1) on perivascular cells of inflamed vessels to be significantly higher that in healthy controls, indicating a potential target to understand COVID-19 vascular complications.