Development of a Geropathology Grading Platform for nonhuman primates.

A geropathology grading platform (GGP) for assessing age-related lesions has been established and validated for in inbred strain of mice. Because nonhuman primates (NHPs) share significant similarities in aging and spontaneous chronic diseases with humans, they provide excellent translational value for correlating histopathology with biological and pathological events associated with increasing age. Descriptive age-associated pathology has been described for rhesus macaques and marmosets, but a grading platform similar to the mouse GGP does not exist.

Association of early experience with neurodegeneration in aged primates.

Environment influences brain development, neurogenesis and, possibly, vulnerability to neurodegenerative disease. We retrospectively examined the brains of aged rhesus monkeys reared during early life in either small cages or larger, "standard-sized" cages; all monkeys were subsequently maintained in standard-sized cages during adulthood. Aged monkeys reared in smaller cages exhibited significantly greater β-amyloid plaque deposition in the neocortex and a significant reduction in synaptophysin immunolabeling in cortical regions compared to aged monkeys reared in standard-sized cages (p<0.