RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Age-related differences in ocular features of a naturalistic free-ranging population of rhesus macaques
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.07.29.501993
DO 10.1101/2022.07.29.501993
A1 Arthur G Fernandes
A1 Palaiologos Alexopoulos
A1 Armando Burgos-Rodriguez
A1 Melween I Martinez
A1 Cayo Biobank Research Unit
A1 Mark Ghassibi
A1 Ilya Leskov
A1 Lauren J N Brent
A1 Noah Snyder-Mackler
A1 John Danias
A1 Gadi Wollstein
A1 James P Higham
A1 Amanda D Melin
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/02/2022.07.29.501993.abstract
AB Purpose Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are the premier nonhuman primate model for studying human health and disease. We aimed to investigate if age was associated with ocular features of clinical relevance in a large cohort of free-ranging rhesus macaques from Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.Methods We evaluated 120 rhesus macaques (73 males, 47 females) aged from 0 to 29 years old (mean±SD: 12.6±6.4) from September to December, 2021. The ophthalmic evaluation included IOP assessment, corneal pachymetry, anterior segment biomicroscopy, A-Scan biometry, automated refraction, and fundus photography after pupil dilation. The effects of age on the outcome variables were investigated through multilevel mixed-effects models adjusted for sex and weight.Results On average, IOP, pachymetry, axial length, and automated refraction spherical equivalent were 15.47±2.47 mmHg, 474.43±32.21 μm, 19.49±1.24 mm, and 0.30±1.70 D, respectively. Age was significantly associated with pachymetry (Coef.= -1.20; 95%CI: -2.27 to -0.14; p=0.026), axial length (Coef.= 0.03; 95%CI: 0.01 to 0.05; p=0.002), and spherical equivalent (Coef.= -0.12; 95%CI: -0.22 to -0.02; p=0.015). No association was detected between age and IOP. The prevalence of cataracts in either eye was 10.83% (95% CI: 6.34 – 17.89%) and was significantly associated with age (OR= 1.20; 95%CI: 1.06 – 1.36; p=0.004). Retinal drusen in either eye was observed in 15.00% (95% CI: 9.60 – 22.68%) of the animals, which was also significantly associated with age (OR=1.14; 95%CI: 1.02 – 1.27; p=0.020).Conclusions Rhesus macaques exhibit age-related ocular associations similar to those observed in human aging, including decreased corneal thickness, increased axial length, myopic shift, and higher occurrence of cataract and retinal drusen.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.