Neuroimaging and histopathological evaluation of delayed neurological damage produced by artificial occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in Cynomolgus monkeys: establishment of a monkey model for delayed cerebral ischemia.

A monkey model (Cynomolgus) was established to evaluate the delayed neurological damage evident at areas distant from ischemic cerebral foci. In addition to proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) monitoring in life, histological examinations of specimens of the brain was conducted on lesions produced 6h and 1, 2, 4 and 8 weeks after unilateral (left) permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCO) on five monkeys. In addition to the typical images evident at primary ischemic foci around the middle cerebral artery, MRS revealed and enhanced, clearer region, due to edema extending into the reticular and compact area of the left substantia nigra one week after pMCO, inducing right hemiparesis caused by focal cerebral ischemia.

A third-generation, long-acting, dihydropyridine calcium antagonist, azelnidipine, attenuates stent-associated neointimal formation in non-human primates.

Background: Calcium antagonists have been shown to reduce atherogenesis and improve clinical outcomes in atherosclerotic vascular disease. No study has so far, however, addressed the effects of calcium antagonists on stent-associated neointimal formation. We therefore investigated whether a third-generation calcium antagonist, azelnidipine, attenuates in-stent neointimal formation in non-human primates.

Cholesterol-lowering independent regression and stabilization of atherosclerotic lesions by pravastatin and by antimonocyte chemoattractant protein-1 therapy in nonhuman primates.

Objective: Anti-atherosclerotic effects of statins might be mediated partly by pleiotropic cholesterol-lowering independent mechanisms. We used nonhuman primates and examined whether treatment with pravastatin or antimonocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) therapy can induce regression and stabilization of established atherosclerotic lesions through cholesterol-lowering independent mechanisms.

Methods And Results: Advanced atherosclerosis was induced in the abdominal aorta and the common iliac artery of cynomolgus monkeys by undergoing balloon injury and giving atherogenic diet for 6 months.