If normal population plasma truly carries more low-grade inflammation, this study hints at a fork in the road.
Either we lower the bar and call it a new normal,
or this is a hidden population burden that will surface later as comorbidities🧵
A new study on the cytokine IL-32 after COVID-19 points directly at this uncomfortable question.
The authors analyzed nearly 1,000 healthy blood donors sampled before and during the pandemic, plus 212 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The result is consistent - plasma collected after 2020 shows systematically higher IL-32 levels compared to pre-pandemic plasma.
Importantly -
this is seen even in people without severe COVID,
the authors interpret it as a consequence of mass exposure to SARS-CoV-2,
suggesting a persistent, low-grade inflammatory imprint at the population level.
What this does not mean?
No contamination, no acute inflammation or infectious risk, no loss of transfusion safety.
What it does mean?
The reference normal of plasma may have shifted since 2019,
some cytokines (here IL-32) behave like long-term memory of immune activation,
in simple words - plasma is no longer immunologically identical to the pre-pandemic era, even in clinically healthy people.
A key detail.
IL-32 is not a cytokine storm marker.
It reflects chronic, silent inflammation/immune reprogramming.
That’s exactly why this finding matters.
The question isn’t whether this matters. If population baseline inflammation has shifted, this affects how we interpret biomarkers, controls, reference ranges, and biobank data going forward.
Miano et al., Frontiers in Immunology, 2026. Association of SARS-CoV-2 infection with long-lasting increase in circulating IL-32 levels. frontiersin.org/journals/immun…
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