Gamer, Jackson, Van Booven, Derek J, Zarnowski, Oskar et al. · International journal of molecular sciences · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at how genes behave differently in men and women with ME/CFS when their bodies are stressed by exercise. Researchers tested blood samples from 33 ME/CFS patients and 34 healthy people before, during, and after exercise. They found that men and women with ME/CFS showed different patterns of gene activity in response to exercise—men's immune systems showed more dramatic changes, while women's genes related to stress response and virus handling showed bigger changes.
Understanding that men and women with ME/CFS may have fundamentally different biological responses to exertion could explain why symptoms and disease progression differ by sex. These findings may guide the development of sex-specific diagnostic approaches and personalized treatments, improving care for both men and women with ME/CFS.
This pilot study does not establish causation—it shows associations between gene expression patterns and exercise stress. The small sample size and single exercise challenge timepoint limit generalizability. Results cannot yet confirm whether these sex-dependent gene expression patterns are the cause of sex differences in ME/CFS symptoms or a consequence of the disease process.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Gamer, Jackson, Van Booven, Derek J, Zarnowski, Oskar, Arango, Sebastian, Elias, Mark, Kurian, Asha, et al. (2023). Sex-Dependent Transcriptional Changes in Response to Stress in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Pilot Project.. International journal of molecular sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241210255
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gamer-2023-sex-dependent,
author = {Gamer, Jackson and Van Booven, Derek J and Zarnowski, Oskar and Arango, Sebastian and Elias, Mark and Kurian, Asha and Joseph, Andrew and Perez, Melanie and Collado, Fanny and Klimas, Nancy and Oltra, Elisa and Nathanson, Lubov},
title = {Sex-Dependent Transcriptional Changes in Response to Stress in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Pilot Project.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.3390/ijms241210255},
note = {PubMed: 37373402},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gamer-2023-sex-dependent},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gamer-2023-sex-dependent
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