Comparative analysis of lymphocytes in lymph nodes and peripheral blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Blood and lymph node samples were obtained from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) who had volunteered to undergo a lymph node biopsy while participating in a phase 1 clinical trial of a novel immunomodulatory therapy. The surface marker phenotypes of the peripheral blood and lymph node samples were examined using four-color flow cytometry and compared to published proportions of cells in peripheral blood and lymph nodes from control individuals. While a greater proportion of T lymphocytes from both lymph nodes and peripheral blood of control subjects are immunologically "naive" (CD45RA+), the proportions of lymphocytes with a "memory" phenotype predominate in lymph nodes and peripheral blood of CFS patients. CFS has been proposed to be a disease of autoimmune etiology and in this respect it is interesting to note that decreased proportions of CD45RA+ T ("naive") cells are also seen in the peripheral blood of patients with autoimmune diseases.