Gómez-Mora, Elisabet, Carrillo, Jorge, Urrea, Víctor et al. · Frontiers in immunology · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at how freezing blood samples affects the ability to detect immune cell changes in ME/CFS patients. Researchers compared fresh blood samples with frozen ones from ME/CFS patients and healthy people, testing various immune markers. They found that some immune markers stay reliable after freezing, but others—particularly certain natural killer cell markers—change significantly, which could make them unreliable for future research.
This research addresses a critical technical challenge in ME/CFS biomarker discovery: the reliability of frozen blood samples used in research biobanks. By identifying which immune markers are distorted by freezing, this work helps researchers design better studies and interpret past findings more accurately. This is essential for developing trustworthy biological tests that could eventually aid diagnosis and understanding of ME/CFS.
This study does not prove whether specific immune abnormalities actually exist in ME/CFS, since the biobanking process itself may have obscured or created apparent differences. It also does not establish which immune markers would be stable in other tissue types or different preservation methods. The small sample size (18 per group) limits generalizability to broader ME/CFS populations.
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
Gómez-Mora, Elisabet, Carrillo, Jorge, Urrea, Víctor, Rigau, Josepa, Alegre, José, Cabrera, Cecilia, et al. (2020). Impact of Long-Term Cryopreservation on Blood Immune Cell Markers in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Implications for Biomarker Discovery.. Frontiers in immunology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.582330
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gmez-mora-2020-impact-long,
author = {Gómez-Mora, Elisabet and Carrillo, Jorge and Urrea, Víctor and Rigau, Josepa and Alegre, José and Cabrera, Cecilia and Oltra, Elisa and Castro-Marrero, Jesús and Blanco, Julià},
title = {Impact of Long-Term Cryopreservation on Blood Immune Cell Markers in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Implications for Biomarker Discovery.},
journal = {Frontiers in immunology},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3389/fimmu.2020.582330},
note = {PubMed: 33329554},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gmez-mora-2020-impact-long},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gmez-mora-2020-impact-long
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