Li, Ruili, Dai, Zhuozhi, Hu, Di et al. · Frontiers in neurology · 2020 · DOI
Researchers used a special brain imaging technique to measure glutamate (a chemical messenger in the brain) in rats that were made fatigued through a 10-day stressful procedure. They found that fatigued rats had higher levels of glutamate in their brains compared to rested rats, and the fatigued rats moved around less. This suggests that too much glutamate in the brain might be involved in causing fatigue.
This study provides early evidence that glutamate dysregulation may be a biological mechanism underlying fatigue, which could lead to new therapeutic targets for ME/CFS patients. Understanding the brain chemistry of fatigue is important because it validates that fatigue has measurable biological causes, not just psychological ones, and may eventually guide development of treatments targeting glutamate pathways.
This animal model study does not prove that glutamate dysregulation causes fatigue in humans with ME/CFS—only that an association exists in rats. The study cannot establish whether elevated glutamate is a cause of fatigue or a consequence of it, and whether findings in healthy rats subjected to acute fatigue loading translate to chronic human ME/CFS pathophysiology remains unknown.
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
Li, Ruili, Dai, Zhuozhi, Hu, Di, Zeng, Haiyan, Fang, Zeman, Zhuang, Zerui, et al. (2020). Mapping the Alterations of Glutamate Using Glu-Weighted CEST MRI in a Rat Model of Fatigue.. Frontiers in neurology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.589128
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-li-2020-mapping-alterations,
author = {Li, Ruili and Dai, Zhuozhi and Hu, Di and Zeng, Haiyan and Fang, Zeman and Zhuang, Zerui and Xu, Haiyun and Huang, Qingjun and Cui, Yilong and Zhang, Handi},
title = {Mapping the Alterations of Glutamate Using Glu-Weighted CEST MRI in a Rat Model of Fatigue.},
journal = {Frontiers in neurology},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3389/fneur.2020.589128},
note = {PubMed: 33250853},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/li-2020-mapping-alterations},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/li-2020-mapping-alterations
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