Fig 2.

(A) Plasma levels of α‐Defensin (α‐Def) and D‐dimers in patients with COVID‐19 at baseline and 1 day following the administration of colchicine (colch; 0·5 mg twice a day). Data are presented as mean ± SD (n = 16; *P < 0·001 vs. baseline, paired t‐test). (B) The impact of tocilizumab (TCZ; 100 µg/ml ²¹ ) for 30 min prior to addition of interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and colch (10 nmol/l) on the IL‐6‐mediated (100 ng/ml ²¹ ) release of α‐Def from human neutrophils in vitro. The result (mean ± SD) of three experiments, each done in triplicate, is shown (P < 0·0001). (C) Effects of IL‐6 and TCZ on the release of myeloperoxidase and α‐Def from neutrophils. The experiment was performed as in (B). TCZ (100 µg/ml) or IL‐6 was incubated with human neutrophils and the release of myeloperoxidase and α‐Def was measured. The effects of zymogen‐activated serum (ZAS) ²⁵ and kallikrein (Kalikrein) ¹⁹ were used as controls for the release of myeloperoxidase and α‐Def or α‐Def alone respectively.