{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T02:25:50Z","timestamp":1790216750496,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1607904000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000071","name":"National Institute of Child Health and Human Development","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["5P50HD098580"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["5P50HD098580"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000071","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    There has been significant concern regarding fertility and reproductive outcomes during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Recent data suggests a high concentration of SARS-Cov2 receptors,\n                    <jats:italic>ACE2<\/jats:italic>\n                    or\n                    <jats:italic>TMPRSS2<\/jats:italic>\n                    , in nasal epithelium and cornea, which explains person-to-person transmission. We investigated the prevalence of SARS-CoV2 receptors among reproductive tissues by exploring the single-cell sequencing datasets from uterus, myometrium, ovary, fallopian tube, and breast epithelium. We did not detect significant expression of either\n                    <jats:italic>ACE2<\/jats:italic>\n                    or\n                    <jats:italic>TMPRSS2<\/jats:italic>\n                    in the normal human myometrium, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tube, or breast. Furthermore, none of the cell types in the female reproductive organs we investigated, showed the co-expression of\n                    <jats:italic>ACE2<\/jats:italic>\n                    with proteases,\n                    <jats:italic>TMPRSS2<\/jats:italic>\n                    , Cathepsin B (\n                    <jats:italic>CTSB<\/jats:italic>\n                    ), and Cathepsin L (\n                    <jats:italic>CTSL<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) known to facilitate the entry of SARS2-CoV2 into the host cell. These results suggest that myometrium, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tube, and breast are unlikely to be susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV2.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0243959","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T13:37:50Z","timestamp":1607953070000},"page":"e0243959","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Female reproductive tract has low concentration of SARS-CoV2 receptors"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1661-1936","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jyoti","family":"Goad","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joshua","family":"Rudolph","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aleksandar","family":"Rajkovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0243959.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"529","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-micro-020518-115759","article-title":"Human Coronavirus: Host-Pathogen Interaction","volume":"73","author":"TS Fung","year":"2019","journal-title":"Annu Rev Microbiol"},{"issue":"10223","key":"pone.0243959.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"507","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)30211-7","article-title":"Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study","volume":"395","author":"N Chen","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0243959.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"271","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2020.02.052","article-title":"SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor","volume":"181","author":"M Hoffmann","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref004","unstructured":"2020 May 6. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/symptoms-testing\/symptoms.html."},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0243959.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.01815-18","article-title":"TMPRSS2 Contributes to Virus Spread and Immunopathology in the Airways of Murine Models after Coronavirus Infection","volume":"93","author":"N Iwata-Yoshikawa","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Virol"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0243959.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"681","DOI":"10.1038\/s41591-020-0868-6","article-title":"SARS-CoV-2 entry factors are highly expressed in nasal epithelial cells together with innate immune genes","volume":"26","author":"W Sungnak","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nat Med"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref007","article-title":"Placental pathology in COVID-19","volume":"2020","author":"ED Shanes","year":"2020","journal-title":"medRxiv"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0243959.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"586","DOI":"10.1002\/uog.22014","article-title":"Coronavirus in pregnancy and delivery: rapid review","volume":"55","author":"E Mullins","year":"2020","journal-title":"Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0243959.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1147","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-020-14936-3","article-title":"Single-cell analysis of human ovarian cortex identifies distinct cell populations but no oogonial stem cells","volume":"11","author":"M Wagner","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nat Commun"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0243959.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ccell.2020.01.003","article-title":"The Repertoire of Serous Ovarian Cancer Non-genetic Heterogeneity Revealed by Single-Cell Sequencing of Normal Fallopian Tube Epithelial Cells","volume":"37","author":"Z Hu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cancer Cell"},{"issue":"7808","key":"pone.0243959.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"303","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-2157-4","article-title":"Construction of a human cell landscape at single-cell level","volume":"581","author":"X Han","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0243959.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2028","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-018-04334-1","article-title":"Profiling human breast epithelial cells using single cell RNA sequencing identifies cell diversity","volume":"9","author":"QH Nguyen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat Commun"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0243959.ref013","first-page":"e34","article-title":"Risks of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Pregnancy; a Narrative Review","volume":"8","author":"L Panahi","year":"2020","journal-title":"Arch Acad Emerg Med"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref014","article-title":"Association of SARS-CoV-2 Test Status and Pregnancy Outcomes","author":"M Ahlberg","year":"2020","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0243959.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e0230295","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0230295","article-title":"The SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 expression of maternal-fetal interface and fetal organs by single-cell transcriptome study","volume":"15","author":"M Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref016","article-title":"Second-Trimester Miscarriage in a Pregnant Woman With SARS-CoV-2 Infection","author":"D Baud","year":"2020","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref017","article-title":"Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in Breastmilk from 18 Infected Women","author":"CD Chambers","year":"2020","journal-title":"medRxiv"},{"key":"pone.0243959.ref018","article-title":"Pulmonary Vascular Endothelialitis, Thrombosis, and Angiogenesis in Covid-19","author":"M Ackermann","year":"2020","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"issue":"23","key":"pone.0243959.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2033","DOI":"10.1182\/blood.2020006000","article-title":"COVID-19 and its implications for thrombosis and anticoagulation","volume":"135","author":"JM Connors","year":"2020","journal-title":"Blood"}],"container-title":["PLOS ONE"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0243959","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T13:38:11Z","timestamp":1607953091000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0243959"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Colette","family":"Kanellopoulos-Langevin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]},"references-count":19,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0243959","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1101\/2020.06.20.163097","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]}}}