Fatigue and cytokines

Fatigue remains an incompletely understood but extremely common symptom that mat be very challenging and difficult to address. One potential class of mediators that may contribute to fatigue, especially in inflammatory states are cytokines. Cytokines are small endogenous hydrophilic proteins and glycoproteins which may be involved in cellto- cell communication and/or signaling pathways that could contribute to the genesis and/or maintenance of fatigue. It is difficult to find robust evidence for specific cytokines directly resulting in the sensation of fatigue, however it appears that in some circumstances cytokines may be involved in contributing to fatigue. A greater understanding of which cytokines in which medical conditions/states may be involved in contributing to fatigue, may help clinicians to optimally address this potentially debilitating symptom.