To further investigate the direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 on HA synthesis anddegradation, expression levels of the three human hyaluronan synthases,HAS1, HAS2, and HAS3, and the two majorhyaluronidases, HYAL1 and HYAL2, weredetermined in HBEC ALI cultures from two different donors 5 days post-infection.No effect was seen on HAS1 expression, but SARS-CoV-2 infectionincreased HAS2 in donor 2 and HAS3 expressionin both donors (Fig. 5A through C).Betamethasone treatment of infected cultures resulted in a reduction of theupregulated HAS2 expression in donor 2 andHAS3 in donor 1 (Fig. 5B andC). Here, HAS2 is linked to infection.