Lidbury, Brett A, Kita, Badia, Lewis, Donald P et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2017 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from people with ME/CFS and compared them to healthy controls, looking for differences in proteins called activins. They found that people with ME/CFS had significantly higher levels of a protein called activin B, while activin A remained normal. This pattern could potentially be used as a blood test to help diagnose ME/CFS, since currently there is no reliable diagnostic test available.
Currently, ME/CFS lacks objective diagnostic biomarkers, making diagnosis difficult and often delayed. This study identifies activin B as a potential serum-based diagnostic tool that could enable faster, more definitive diagnosis and improve patient access to appropriate care and validation.
This study does not prove that activin B causes ME/CFS symptoms—elevated levels may be a consequence of the disease rather than its cause. The cross-sectional design cannot establish temporal relationships, and findings require validation in larger, independent cohorts before clinical implementation. The study also does not explain the biological mechanism linking activin B elevation to ME/CFS pathology.
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
Lidbury, Brett A, Kita, Badia, Lewis, Donald P, Hayward, Susan, Ludlow, Helen, Hedger, Mark P, et al. (2017). Activin B is a novel biomarker for chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) diagnosis: a cross sectional study.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-017-1161-4
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lidbury-2017-activin-novel,
author = {Lidbury, Brett A and Kita, Badia and Lewis, Donald P and Hayward, Susan and Ludlow, Helen and Hedger, Mark P and de Kretser, David M},
title = {Activin B is a novel biomarker for chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) diagnosis: a cross sectional study.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-017-1161-4},
note = {PubMed: 28302133},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lidbury-2017-activin-novel},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lidbury-2017-activin-novel
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