Mycobacterium leprae genomes from naturally infected nonhuman primates.

Leprosy is caused by the bacterial pathogens Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Apart from humans, animals such as nine-banded armadillos in the Americas and red squirrels in the British Isles are naturally infected with M. leprae.

Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) at the California National Primate Research Center (1992-2014).

Necropsy records and associated clinical histories from the rhesus macaque colony at the California National Primate Research Center were reviewed to identify mortality related to cardiac abnormalities involving left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Over a 21-y period, 162 cases (female, 90; male, 72) of idiopathic LVH were identified. Macaques presented to necropsy with prominent concentric hypertrophy of the left ventricle associated with striking reduction of the ventricular lumen.

Gene expression and TB pathogenesis in rhesus macaques: TR4, CD40, CD40L, FAS (CD95), and TNF are host genetic markers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells that are associated with severity of TB lesions.

Tuberculosis (TB) pathologic lesions in rhesus macaques resemble those in humans. The expression levels of several host TB candidate genes in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of six rhesus macaques experimentally infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis were quantified pre-infection and at several dates post-infection. Quantitative measures of TB histopathology in the lungs including: granuloma count, granuloma size, volume of granulomatous and non-granulomatous lesions, and direct bacterial load, were used as the outcomes of a multi-level Bayesian regression model in which expression levels of host genes at various dates were used as predictors.

Contribution of Endemic Listeriosis to Spontaneous Abortion and Stillbirth in a Large Outdoor-housed Colony of Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta).

Listeria monocytogenes is an endemic agent in the primate population at the California National Primate Research Center and has been associated with both sporadic cases and a general outbreak of pregnancy failures. The primary objective of this study was to verify the incidence of L. monocytogenes-associated abortion and fetal deaths in the Center's outdoor breeding colony.

Large scale pedigree analysis leads to evidence for founder effects of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Rhesus Macaques ().

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the abnormal thickening of the ventricles and an increase in cardiac mass. Analyses of 108 rhesus macaque probands with pronounced HCM revealed a strong genetic predisposition to this disease. Macaques are ideal for investigating HCM because of their marked similarity to humans genetically, physiologically and anatomically.