Effect of Colchicine on Platelet-Platelet and Platelet-Leukocyte Interactions: a Pilot Study in Healthy Subjects

The cardioprotective mechanisms of colchicine in patients with stable ischemic heart disease remain uncertain. We tested varying concentrations of colchicine on platelet activity in vitro and a clinically relevant 1.8-mg oral loading dose administered over 1 h in 10 healthy subjects. Data are shown as median [interquartile range]. Colchicine addition in vitro decreased light transmission platelet aggregation only at supratherapeutic concentrations but decreased monocyte- (MPA) and neutrophil-platelet aggregation (NPA) at therapeutic concentrations. Administration of 1.8 mg colchicine to healthy subjects had no significant effect on light transmission platelet aggregation but decreased the extent of MPA (28 % [22–57] to 22 % [19–31], p = 0.05) and NPA (19 % [16–59] to 15 % [11–30], p = 0.01), platelet surface expression of PAC-1 (370 mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) [328–555] to 333 MFI [232–407], p = 0.02) and P-selectin (351 MFI [269–492] to 279 [226–364], p = 0.03), and platelet adhesion to collagen (10.2 % [2.5–32.6] to 2.0 % [0.2–9.5], p = 0.09) 2 h post-administration. Thus, in clinically relevant concentrations, colchicine decreases expression of surface markers of platelet activity and inhibits leukocyte-platelet aggregation but does not inhibit homotypic platelet aggregation.