Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To study the potential effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the endometrial transcriptome of affected, symptomatic women for the detection of altered gene expression. DESIGN: Pilot study of the endometrial transcriptomes of women manifesting COVID-19 compared with those of women without COVID-19 undergoing hysteroscopic procedures for benign gynecologic disorders using RNA sequencing. SETTING: Hospital and university laboratories. PATIENT(S): Women with (n = 14) and without a COVID-19 (n = 10) diagnosis based on a nasopharyngeal swab analysis using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. The endometrium of the patients with COVID-19 had previously been tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, revealing the absence of the virus in this tissue. INTERVENTION(S): Endometrial biopsy sample collection. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURE(S): Endometrial gene expression and functional analysis of symptomatic patients with COVID-19 vs. individuals without the infection. RESULT(S): The systemic disease COVID-19 altered endometrial gene expression in 75% of the women, with the patients exhibiting a preponderance of 163 up-regulated (e.g., UTS2, IFI6, IFIH1, and BNIP3) and 72 down-regulated genes (e.g., CPZ, CDH3, and IRF4) (false discovery rate<0.05). A total of 161 dysregulated functions (36 up-regulated and 125 down-regulated) were typically enriched in the endometria of the patients with COVID-19, including up-regulation in pathways involved in the development of immune responses to viruses and cytokine inflammation, reflecting elicitation of a COVID-19 response pathway. CONCLUSION(S): Coronavirus disease 2019 affects endometrial gene expression despite the absence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in endometrial tissues.