Effect of Ovarian Hormone Therapy on Cognition in the Aged Female Rhesus Macaque.

Unlabelled: Studies of the effect of hormone therapy on cognitive function in menopausal women have been equivocal, in part due to differences in the type and timing of hormone treatment. Here we cognitively tested aged female rhesus macaques on (1) the delayed response task of spatial working memory, (2) a visuospatial attention task that measured spatially and temporally cued reaction times, and (3) a simple reaction time task as a control for motor speed. After task acquisition, animals were ovariectomized (OVX).

Drusenoid maculopathy in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): effects of age and gender.

Purpose: To compare drusenoid maculopathy in monkeys with human age-related macular degeneration, and evaluate the influence of age, gender and caloric restriction.

Methods: Examination by indirect ophthalmoscopy, slit-lamp biomicroscopy and fundus photography, including in some cases fluorescein angiography, was performed on 61 male and 60 female rhesus macaques of ages 10-39 years. Fifty-four of the monkeys were maintained on a calorically restricted diet (approximately 30% lower than control levels) and 67 on an approximately ad libitum diet for 2-19 years, with all other environmental factors held constant.

Rhesus monkeys and humans share common susceptibility genes for age-related macular disease.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a complex multigenic disorder and the most common cause of vision loss in the elderly, is associated with polymorphisms in the LOC387715/ARMS2 and HTRA1 genes on 10q26. Like humans, macaque monkeys possess a macula and develop age-related macular pathologies including drusen, the phenotypic hallmark of AMD. We genotyped a cohort of 137 unrelated rhesus macaques with and without macular drusen.