Table 2.
Serum concentration (pg/ml) of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors (Wave 2). Results are expressed as median and range [25% percentile; 75% percentile] or number of cases (%). Jonckheere–Terpstra test was used to assess the trend between groups. The non parametric Kruskall Wallis test was applied to assess the difference among three groups followed by Mann Whitney U test for pairwise comparisons.
| CONTROL (n = 15) | MILD COVID-19 (n = 26) | SEVERE COVID-19 (n = 10) | Trend p value | Overall p value | Mild versus control | Severe versus control | Severe versus mild | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender, male n. (%) | 10 (66.6) | 20 (76.9) | 9 (90) | 0.4022 | ||||
| Age | 56 [49; 59] | 59 [50; 77] | 65 [62; 73] | 0.0085 | < 0.0001 | 0.0078 | ||
| IL-1β | 4.28 [4.18; 4.61] | 4.93 [4.36; 5.68] | 4.71 [4.39; 5.09] | 0.035 | 0.0157 | 0.0134 | ||
| IL-1ra | 358.9 [261.7; 549.7] | 748.7 [515.3; 1851] | 962.3 [439.9; 3550] | 0.002 | 0.0027 | 0.0036 | 0.0251 | |
| IL-2 | 12.46 [11.98; 13.41] | 13.89 [12.93; 15.33] | 13.89 [13.29; 14.85] | 0.004 | 0.0017 | 0.0017 | 0.0360 | |
| IL-4 | 4.21 [3.36; 5.32] | 4.35 [3.65; 5.46] | 3.51 [3.22; 4.64] | 0.604 | 0.3044 | |||
| IL-5 | 93.28 [81.01; 102.5] | 98.66 [90.2; 108.7] | 91.74 [89.43; 109.1] | 0.514 | 0.4529 | |||
| IL-6 | 6.31 [5.18; 7.03] | 11.19 [9.18; 14.51] | 22.84 [9.52; 78.53] | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | |
| IL-7 | 44.79 [38.66; 52.86] | 48.17 [43.27; 60.34] | 42.76 [37.97; 56.48] | 0.943 | 0.3576 | |||
| IL-8 | 22.13 [18.09; 25.65] | 41.24 [31.73; 60.87] | 62.63 [38.2; 90.45] | < 0.0001 | 0.0001 | 0.0014 | 0.0003 | |
| IL-9 | 235.8 [218.4; 257 | 233.4 [195.7; 261.4] | 237.7 [195.2; 248.7] | 0.427 | 0.6491 | |||
| IL-10 | 9.08 [8.33; 9.84] | 11.58 [10.13; 14.36] | 17.02 [11.68; 28.74] | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | 0.0018 | < 0.0001 | |
| IL-12 (p70) | 11.53 [11.01; 11.79] | 12.31 [11.79; 12.97] | 12.05 [11.27; 12.97] | 0.056 | 0.0202 | 0.0157 | ||
| IL-13 | 3.04 [2.83; 3.25] | 3.57 [3.19; 5.15] | 3.14 [2.83; 3.3] | 0.154 | 0.0017 | 0.0019 | ||
| IL-15 | 265.7 [231.6; 287.4] | 336.4 [282; 384.9] | 291.3 [268.4; 322.5] | 0.052 | 0.0014 | 0.0009 | ||
| IL-17 | 28.61 [27.81; 34.26] | 30.61 [26.22; 35.08] | 29.41 [27.61; 33.95] | 0.844 | 0.8307 | |||
| Eotaxin | 205.9 [130.2; 293.6] | 134.1 [104.3; 270.4] | 100.9 [78.22; 153.6] | 0.004 | 0.0171 | 0.0140 | ||
| FGF-b | 85.36 [78.74; 91.78] | 85.36 [76.48; 98.54] | 84.27 [75.33; 96.49] | 0.694 | 0.8380 | |||
| G-CSF | 166.4 [131.4; 207.2] | 189.3 [162.2; 226.1] | 190.2 [165.2; 445.5] | 0.038 | 0.1057 | |||
| GM-CSF | 7.38 [6.81; 7.57] | 9.45 [7.85; 10.3] | 8.04 [7.38; 8.55] | 0.041 | 0.0009 | 0.0006 | ||
| IFN-γ | 24.76 [21.78; 28.79] | 32.37 [28.92; 43.05] | 36.24 [30.07; 64.68] | < 0.0001 | 0.0008 | 0.0044 | 0.0024 | |
| IP-10 | 1081 [722.6; 1382] | 1932 [1187; 5275] | 8769 [4991; 21726] | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | < 0.0001 | 0.0083 | |
| MCP-1 | 65.46 [48.44; 99.57] | 103.1 [73.89; 179.2] | 160.9 [61.1; 364] | 0.019 | 0.0531 | |||
| MIP-1α | 3.56 [3.12; 8.05] | 6.34 [4.28; 8.22] | 8.06 [3.96; 21.83] | 0.016 | 0.0530 | |||
| MIP-1β | 271.5 [246.9; 300.1] | 289.2 [266.6; 327.3] | 288.3 [255; 318.9] | 0.215 | 0.2513 | |||
| RANTES | 20,323 [14757; 27267] | 25,675 [14405; 35015] | 23,107 [15863; 34575] | 0.377 | 0.5413 | |||
| TNF-α | 118.4 [108; 132.6] | 131 [100.5; 137] | 128.3 [109.2; 160.1] | 0.253 | 0.5333 | |||
| VEGF | 425.3 [380.3; 622] | 603.2 [468.4; 681.9] | 491.9 [403.7; 524.2] | 0.498 | 0.0867 | |||
| PDGF | 3593 [2289; 6284] | 6240 [3989; 9332] | 4052 [2542; 12542] | 0.121 | 0.0652 |