title: Elevation of bioactive transforming growth factor-beta in serum from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
abstract: The level of bioactive transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) was measured in serum from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), healthy control subjects, and patients with major depression, systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), and multiple sclerosis (MS) of both the relapsing/remitting (R/R) and the chronic progressive (CP) types. Patients with CFS had significantly higher levels of bioactive TGF-beta levels compared to the healthy control major depression, SLE, R/R MS, and CP MS groups (P < 0.01). Additionally, no significant differences were found between the healthy control subjects and any of the disease comparison groups. The current finding that TGF-beta is significantly elevated among patients with CFS supports the findings of two previous studies examining smaller numbers of CFS patients. In conclusion, TGF-beta levels were significantly higher in CFS patients compared to patients with various diseases known to be associated with immunologic abnormalities and/or pathologic fatigue. These findings raise interesting questions about the possible role of TGF-beta in the pathogenesis of CFS.
authors.affiliation: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Cooperative Research Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buchwald
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Fagioli
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Schur
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Komaroff
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000097:blood; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000097:blood; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta