Fig. 2

Expression of MACROH2A1 is enhanced in serum EVs and lungs of patients with severe COVID-19. a Levels of MACROH2A1 as determined by non-targeted proteomic analysis in patients with COVID-19 and healthy controls. Data are presented as a box plot. **p < 0.001. b The levels of MACROH2A1 and CD9, determined by immunoblotting of EVs isolated from sera collected in equal volumes from critical cases with COVID-19 (Groups 2 and 3) and healthy controls. The images were cropped from the original full-length blot image in Supplementary Fig. 10a and b. The data is representative of 2 independent experiments. c Histological analysis of lung sections of patients with COVID-19 and controls. Lung sections subjected to hematoxylin–eosin staining are in the left panel and those subjected to immunohistochemistry revealing MACROH2A1-positive cells (brown) are in the right panel. The figures are representative of 3 patients with COVID-19 and 3 controls. d Percentages of MACROH2A1-positive cells in lung sections as in c, determined using BZ-X Analyzer software. Data are presented as a box plot. n = 3 per group (COVID-19), n = 3 per group (COVID-19). *p < 0.05