IL1B and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: To assess the functional impact of epEV exposure in macrophages, THP-1 cells (Figure 2A) and primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) (Figure 2B) were stimulated with healthy and COPD epEVs and assessed for LDH release as a measure of cytotoxicity and IL-1β release as a measure of inflammasome activation.