Exercise and Sleep Deprivation Do Not Change Cytokine Expression Levels in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Overview

Journal Clin Vaccine Immunol

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialties Allergy & Immunology
Pathology

Date 2013 Sep 13

PMID 24027260

Citations 9

Authors

Toru Nakamura

Stephan Schwander

Robert Donnelly

Dane B Cook

Felix Ortega

Fumiharu Togo

Yoshiharu Yamamoto

Neil S Cherniack

Marc Klapholz

David Rapoport

Benjamin H Natelson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A major hypothesis regarding the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is immune dysregulation, thought to be reflected in upregulated proinflammatory cytokines leading to the symptoms that are characteristic of this illness. Because the symptoms worsen with physical exertion or sleep loss, we hypothesized that we could use these stressors to magnify the underlying potential pathogenic abnormalities in the cytokine systems of people with CFS. We conducted repeat blood sampling for cytokine levels from healthy subjects and CFS patients during both postexercise and total sleep deprivation nights and assayed for protein levels in the blood samples, mRNA activity in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs), and function in resting and stimulated PBLs. We found that these environmental manipulations did not produce clinically significant upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines. These data do not support an important role of immune dysregulation in the genesis of stress-induced worsening of CFS.

Citing Articles

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Clarke K, Kingdon C, Hughes M, Lacerda E, Lewis R, Kruchek E J Transl Med. 2025; 23(1):149.

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Neuroinflammation and Cytokines in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS): A Critical Review of Research Methods.

VanElzakker M, Brumfield S, Lara Mejia P Front Neurol. 2019; 9:1033.

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Weighting of orthostatic intolerance time measurements with standing difficulty score stratifies ME/CFS symptom severity and analyte detection.

Richardson A, Lewis D, Kita B, Ludlow H, Groome N, Hedger M J Transl Med. 2018; 16(1):97.

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Value of Circulating Cytokine Profiling During Submaximal Exercise Testing in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Moneghetti K, Skhiri M, Contrepois K, Kobayashi Y, Maecker H, Davis M Sci Rep. 2018; 8(1):2779.

PMID: 29426834 PMC: 5807550. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20941-w.

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