Hardcastle, Sharni Lee, Brenu, Ekua Weba, Johnston, Samantha et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2015 · DOI
This study tracked immune system changes in 42 ME/CFS patients (divided into moderate and severe groups) and 18 healthy controls over 6 months. Researchers used blood tests to count different types of immune cells. They found that people with severe ME/CFS had noticeably different immune cell patterns than those with moderate ME/CFS or healthy controls, suggesting the immune system may work differently depending on how severe the illness is.
This is the first study to systematically track immune abnormalities across different ME/CFS severity levels over time, suggesting that immune dysfunction may be severity-dependent. Identifying immune markers that change with disease severity could help develop better diagnostic tests and guide personalized treatment strategies for different patient populations.
This study does not prove that immune abnormalities cause ME/CFS—it only shows that certain immune cell patterns differ between patients and controls. The findings correlate immune changes with severity but do not establish whether these changes drive symptom severity or are consequences of the disease. Longitudinal changes over 6 months do not necessarily predict long-term patterns or inform prognosis.
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
Hardcastle, Sharni Lee, Brenu, Ekua Weba, Johnston, Samantha, Nguyen, Thao, Huth, Teilah, Ramos, Sandra, et al. (2015). Longitudinal analysis of immune abnormalities in varying severities of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-015-0653-3
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hardcastle-2015-longitudinal-analysis,
author = {Hardcastle, Sharni Lee and Brenu, Ekua Weba and Johnston, Samantha and Nguyen, Thao and Huth, Teilah and Ramos, Sandra and Staines, Donald and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya},
title = {Longitudinal analysis of immune abnormalities in varying severities of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-015-0653-3},
note = {PubMed: 26370228},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hardcastle-2015-longitudinal-analysis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hardcastle-2015-longitudinal-analysis
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