Bai, Wenxuan, Jiang, Tiebin, Tang, Lanlan et al. · Experimental hematology · 2025 · DOI
This review examines how bone marrow stem cell transplants can cause complications through a process called oxidative stress (cellular damage from harmful molecules). The authors explain how gut bacteria and their chemical byproducts may help protect the body by reducing this oxidative stress, potentially preventing or lessening serious complications like infections, fatigue, and organ damage that can occur after transplantation.
This review is relevant to ME/CFS research because it identifies oxidative stress and gut microbiome dysfunction as potential mechanisms underlying post-transplant chronic fatigue syndrome, suggesting that microbiome-targeted interventions may help prevent or treat fatigue in this population. Understanding how gut bacteria influence systemic oxidative stress could inform new therapeutic approaches for ME/CFS patients more broadly, as oxidative stress has been implicated in ME/CFS pathophysiology.
This review does not provide direct clinical evidence that modifying the gut microbiome actually reduces oxidative stress or prevents complications in allo-HSCT patients—it synthesizes existing literature to propose mechanisms. It does not establish causation between oxidative stress and specific complications, nor does it demonstrate that the findings apply to spontaneous ME/CFS outside the transplant setting. The proposed role of gut microbiota is theoretical and requires prospective testing.
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 →
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