Wolff, Brian S, Alshawi, Sarah A, Feng, Li Rebekah et al. · Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021 · DOI
Researchers gave mice targeted radiation to the pelvis (similar to cancer treatment) and found that the mice became less active afterward—a fatigue-like behavior. They discovered that inflammation, particularly a protein called IL-6, plays a key role in causing this fatigue. When they reduced inflammation using a drug called minocycline or using mice genetically unable to trigger certain inflammatory pathways, the fatigue was reduced but not completely eliminated.
ME/CFS patients experience severe fatigue with unclear underlying mechanisms, and radiation-induced fatigue shares clinical features with post-viral fatigue states. This study provides preclinical evidence that inflammatory pathways, particularly IL-6 signaling, can drive fatigue-like behavior, offering potential therapeutic targets that may be relevant to understanding and treating fatigue in ME/CFS.
This study was conducted in mice exposed to acute radiation and does not directly prove that IL-6 or inflammation causes fatigue in ME/CFS patients or other human populations. The incomplete resolution of fatigue-like behavior even when inflammation was reduced indicates that inflammation alone is insufficient to explain the full mechanism of fatigue. Findings from a single acute insult model may not translate to chronic fatigue conditions.
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
Wolff, Brian S, Alshawi, Sarah A, Feng, Li Rebekah, Juneau, Paul L, & Saligan, Leorey N (2021). Inflammation plays a causal role in fatigue-like behavior induced by pelvic irradiation in mice.. Brain, behavior, & immunity - health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100264
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wolff-2021-inflammation-plays,
author = {Wolff, Brian S and Alshawi, Sarah A and Feng, Li Rebekah and Juneau, Paul L and Saligan, Leorey N},
title = {Inflammation plays a causal role in fatigue-like behavior induced by pelvic irradiation in mice.},
journal = {Brain, behavior, & immunity - health},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100264},
note = {PubMed: 34589770},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wolff-2021-inflammation-plays},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wolff-2021-inflammation-plays
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