Particularly, it was two types of non-nerve cells: the sustentacular cells, which physically support and offer energy to the olfactory nerve, and basal cells, the stem cells that change damaged cells in that location.
That’s something of a surprise, since other infections that trigger anosmia, including other coronaviruses, tend to directly contaminate olfactory nerve cells. It’s still too early to rule out that our olfactory nerve can’t be permanently damaged by covid-19(one of a number of theories by the authors is that damage to these supporting cells is still adequate to eliminate off olfactory nerve cells).
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