Małujło-Balcerska, Elżbieta, Bączek, Karol, Górski, Witold et al. · Journal of inflammation research · 2025 · DOI
This study looked at 71 people with sarcoidosis (a disease that causes inflammation) to understand why some feel extremely tired even after their disease improves. Researchers measured inflammation markers in the blood and found that people with lingering fatigue had higher levels of a protein called IL-6 compared to those without fatigue. The findings suggest that low-grade inflammation may be keeping people fatigued even when their disease appears to be under control.
This study identifies IL-6-mediated inflammation as a potential mechanism underlying persistent fatigue even during disease remission, paralleling hypotheses in ME/CFS and Long COVID pathogenesis. The findings suggest IL-6 as a tractable biomarker and therapeutic target for post-inflammatory fatigue syndromes, informing future intervention development for ME/CFS patients.
This study does not prove that IL-6 causes fatigue—only that they are associated in sarcoidosis remission. Cross-sectional design prevents determination of temporal relationships or causality. Findings are specific to post-sarcoidosis fatigue and may not directly apply to ME/CFS or other fatigue etiologies without further validation.
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
Małujło-Balcerska, Elżbieta, Bączek, Karol, Górski, Witold, Kumor-Kisielewska, Anna, Gwadera, Łukasz, Białas, Adam Jerzy, et al. (2025). Peripheral Levels of Selected Biomarkers in Patients with Post-Sarcoidosis Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Journal of inflammation research. https://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S549445
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-maujo-balcerska-2025-peripheral-levels,
author = {Małujło-Balcerska, Elżbieta and Bączek, Karol and Górski, Witold and Kumor-Kisielewska, Anna and Gwadera, Łukasz and Białas, Adam Jerzy and Piotrowski, Wojciech Jerzy},
title = {Peripheral Levels of Selected Biomarkers in Patients with Post-Sarcoidosis Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Journal of inflammation research},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.2147/JIR.S549445},
note = {PubMed: 41357843},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maujo-balcerska-2025-peripheral-levels},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maujo-balcerska-2025-peripheral-levels
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.