TNFa -/- mice bounce off the walls

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" Compared to normal littermates, the voluntary daily running distance

was 1·8-fold greater in mice with a disruption of the gene for TNF & #945;,

and 3-fold greater in mice with a gene disruption for both TNF & #945;

and LT [lymphotoxin alpha]. "

Looks like TNF may dampen motor drive even in healthy mammals.

That is, if you believe that homozygous C57Bl/6 J mice are healthy

mammals. This ain't no ecosystem. If the mice have any subtle

parasites, those parasites have had many generations to adapt to the

single identical C57Bl/6 J genotype. The way the mice are bred is

equivalent to asexual reproduction. Not a lot of asexual vertebrate

taxa out there, are there (there are a handful). I digress. Anyway,

the normal C57Bl/6 J mice voluntarily run 3-4 km per day in an

exercise wheel, which seems pretty frisky to me. The double knockout

dudes covered 10 km a day!

One of these guys is actually at the " Nijmegen Expertise Centre on

Chronic Fatigue " in the Netherlands, and CFS is mentioned in the paper.

They basically seem to favor a central (CNS) seat of fatigue in CFS,

MS, and late cancer, not a peripheral abnormality.

They don't review anything on objective abnormalities in CFS

associated with energy metabolism and/or exercise. I think there are

some. I haven't read em.

Since I think(?) there's some evidence for cytokine transporters

across the BBB, one should distinguish a purely-central fatigue

physiology from a semi-central one in which peripheral cytokines pass

into the CNS.