Altered functional B cell subset populations in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome compared to healthy controls
Open accessAbstract
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a heterogeneous disorder of unknown aetiology characterized by disabling fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbance and several other symptoms. The onset of CFS may follow a viral infection or period of stress. Patients with CFS do not have hypogammaglobulinaemia, predisposition to recurrent bacterial infections or symptoms of autoimmunity. To date, defects in B cell numbers or function have not been shown in the literature. However, treatment with anti-B cell therapy using Rituximab has recently shown benefit to CFS patients. We therefore postulated that patients with CFS had a subtle humoral immune dysfunction, and performed extended B cell immunophenotyping. We undertook a detailed characterization of the proportions of the different B cell subsets in 33 patients with CFS fulfilling the Canadian and Fukada criteria for CFS and compared these with 24 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). CFS patients had greater numbers of naive B cells as a percentage of lymphocytes: 6·3 versus 3·9% in HC (P = 0·034), greater numbers of naive B cells as a percentage of B cells: 65 versus 47% in controls (P = 0·003), greater numbers of transitional B cells: 1·8 versus 0·8% in controls (P = 0·025) and reduced numbers of plasmablasts: 0·5 versus 0·9% in controls (P = 0·013). While the cause of these changes is unclear, we speculate whether they may suggest a subtle tendency to autoimmunity.
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- Authors
- Bradley, A. S., Ford, B., & Bansal, A. S.
- Affiliations
- St Helier Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bradley, A S
- ORCID
- Bansal, A S
- Venue
- Clinical and Experimental Immunology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-03-11
- Volume
- 172
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 73-80
- ISSN
- 0009-9104 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2249
- PMC
- PMC3719933
- OpenAlex
- W1542238981
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 3.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Clinical & Experimental Immunology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- ME solutions charity
- estate of Abraham Goudsmit
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Keywords
- chronic fatigue syndrome, B cell subsets, naive B cells, transitional B cells, plasmablasts, B cell immunophenotyping, autoimmunity, rituximab
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Immunoglobulins, Male, Middle Aged, Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic, Case-Control Studies, Immunophenotyping, B-Lymphocyte Subsets, Lymphocyte Count, Immunity, Humoral
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