Jammes, Y, Steinberg, J G, Delliaux, S · Journal of internal medicine · 2012 · DOI
This study examined whether a history of intense exercise or serious infections in ME/CFS patients affects how their bodies handle oxidative stress (cellular damage) and produce protective heat shock proteins. Researchers compared 43 ME/CFS patients with different backgrounds to 23 healthy controls, measuring stress markers and protective proteins both at rest and after exercise. They found that ME/CFS patients with a history of high-level sports or infections showed signs of greater cellular damage and weaker protective responses to exercise.
This research provides a potential biological mechanism linking past physical exertion or infections to the characteristic post-exertional malaise in ME/CFS, helping explain why some patients experience worse outcomes after activity. Understanding the role of heat shock proteins and oxidative stress may eventually guide therapeutic interventions aimed at restoring these protective cellular responses.
This study demonstrates associations between stress history and biomarker abnormalities but does not prove causation—prior stressors may correlate with but not directly cause the observed changes. The findings do not establish that correcting oxidative stress or HSP levels will improve ME/CFS symptoms, nor do they explain why some patients without obvious triggering events still develop ME/CFS. Cross-sectional measurements cannot determine whether these abnormalities preceded illness onset or resulted from it.
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
Jammes, Y, Steinberg, J G, & Delliaux, S (2012). Chronic fatigue syndrome: acute infection and history of physical activity affect resting levels and response to exercise of plasma oxidant/antioxidant status and heat shock proteins.. Journal of internal medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02488.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-jammes-2012-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Jammes, Y and Steinberg, J G and Delliaux, S},
title = {Chronic fatigue syndrome: acute infection and history of physical activity affect resting levels and response to exercise of plasma oxidant/antioxidant status and heat shock proteins.},
journal = {Journal of internal medicine},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02488.x},
note = {PubMed: 22112145},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jammes-2012-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jammes-2012-chronic-fatigue
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