We have recently found that an infant Japanese monkey born in the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University has deep wrinkles of the skin and suffers from cataract of bilateral eyes. As these features were similar to those in aged monkeys, we tested from several viewpoints if this monkey might represent a progeria model. MRI analysis revealed expansion of the cerebral sulci and lateral ventricles compared with an age-matched normal monkey. These features were also observed in aged monkeys and considered to be due to shrinkage of the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. In this monkey, the conduction velocity of a peripheral sensory but not motor nerve was lower than in control adult and infant monkeys and as low as in control aged monkeys, thus indicating that demyelination may occur in this monkey like aged monkeys. Levels of urinary hyaluronan and HbA1c in this money were higher than those in the control monkey groups. The cell cycle of fibroblasts taken from this monkey was significantly retarded as compared to a normal control. The decline in proliferative potency is similar to that in patients with Werner syndrome, a representative type of human progeria. Yet, we could not detect any individual-unique mutations of known genes responsible for major progeroid syndromes. The present results suggest that the monkey may suffer from a kind of progeria that is not necessarily typical of human progeroid syndromes.

The monkey was inspected by courtesy of National BioResource Project "Japanese Monkeys".