Hip
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Confused.....has Th-17 been found to be decreased or increased in those with CFS/ME in more studies? I looked into Th-17 awhile ago, and my brain isn't remembering what I learned. :thumbdown:
I thought Th-17 levels from my lack of effective memory, were raised, in which correlates with the epithelial and mucosal problems common in CFS/ME? And with my learning endeavors into interferon and its relation, deletion of interferon genes, would then affect the level of Th1 T cells, and initiate a Th2 dominance and a lack of control of the Th17???
I have just had a quick Google, and this study found that the Th17 cytokines IL-17 and IL-23 were unchanged (normal) in (female) ME/CFS patients, so there may not be much consistency in these results from one study to the next.
My understanding is that the Th17 immune response is a rather specialized one, that only comes into play to fight off a small subset of pathogens, which include Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. So perhaps only ME/CFS patients that have co-infections with these specific pathogens will have raised Th17?
Raised Th17 does compromise both intestinal and blood-brain barrier integrity, so lowering Th17 with N-acetylglucosamine may help repair these barriers.