{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0272703","title":"Phenotypic characteristics of peripheral immune cells of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome via transmission electron microscopy: A pilot study","abstract":"Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex chronic multi-systemic disease characterized by extreme fatigue that is not improved by rest, and worsens after exertion, whether physical or mental. Previous studies have shown ME/CFS-associated alterations in the immune system and mitochondria. We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the morphology and ultrastructure of unstimulated and stimulated ME/CFS immune cells and their intracellular organelles, including mitochondria. PBMCs from four participants were studied: a pair of identical twins discordant for moderate ME/CFS, as well as two age- and gender- matched unrelated subjects-one with an extremely severe form of ME/CFS and the other healthy. TEM analysis of CD3/CD28-stimulated T cells suggested a significant increase in the levels of apoptotic and necrotic cell death in T cells from ME/CFS patients (over 2-fold). Stimulated Tcells of ME/CFS patients also had higher numbers of swollen mitochondria. We also found a large increase in intracellular giant lipid droplet-like organelles in the stimulated PBMCs from the extremely severe ME/CFS patient potentially indicative of a lipid storage disorder. Lastly, we observed a slight increase in platelet aggregation in stimulated cells, suggestive of a possible role of platelet activity in ME/CFS pathophysiology and disease severity. These results indicate extensive morphological alterations in the cellular and mitochondrial phenotypes of ME/CFS patients' immune cells and suggest new insights into ME/CFS biology.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2022,"id":254621,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":21,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9587,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":902349,"name":"Rajan Douglas Maynard","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":901751,"name":"Justin Sing","orcid":"0000-0003-0386-0092","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":651068,"name":"Shaghayegh Jahanbani","orcid":"0000-0001-7789-4856","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":297982,"name":"John Perrino","orcid":"0000-0003-0825-3160","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":4990,"name":"Damek V. Spacek","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":71594,"name":"Ronald W. Davis","orcid":"0000-0003-3123-2333","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":5648,"name":"Michael P. Snyder","orcid":"0000-0003-0784-7987","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":535907,"name":"Fereshteh Jahanbani","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":206,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:25:08.518416Z","pmid":"35943990","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}