Placental Injury and Antibody Transfer Following COVID-19 Disease in Pregnancy.
Patience TimiSarah E KellerhalsNaima T JosephCarolynn M DudeHans P VerkerkeLes'Shon S IrbyAlicia K SmithSean R StowellDenise J JamiesonMartina L BadellPublished in: The Journal of infectious diseases (2022)
We examined the relationship between placental histopathology and transplacental antibody transfer in pregnant patients following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Differences in plasma concentrations of anti-Receptor Biding Domain (RBD) Immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies in maternal and cord blood were analyzed according to presence of placental injury. Median [IQR] anti-RBD IgG concentrations in cord blood with placental injury (n = 7) did not differ significantly from those without injury (n= 16) [(2.7 [1.8,3.6] vs 2.7[2.4, 2.9], p= 0.59). However, they were associated with lower transfer ratios (median [IQR] 0.77[0.61, 0.97] vs. 0.97[0.80, 1.01], p = 0.05) suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 placental injury mediates reduced maternal-fetal antibody transfer.