Cynomolgus monkeys displayed a wide intersubject range of oral ethanol self-administration with a procedure that used a uniform and prolonged induction that restricted early exposure to ethanol and subsequently allowed unlimited access to ethanol. There were sex and stable individual differences in the propensity of monkeys to consume ethanol, indicating that this species will be important in characterizing risk factors associated with heavy-drinking phenotypes.

We report here on the social behavior of 30 adult male cynomolgus monkeys, maintained in social groups of five animals each and assigned for 22 months to one of two dietary conditions: a) "luxury"--relatively high fat, high cholesterol (43% calories from fat, 0.34 mg cholesterol/Calorie of diet); or b) "prudent"--relatively low fat, low cholesterol (30% calories from fat, 0.05 mg cholesterol/Calorie of diet). The dietary manipulation resulted in higher total serum cholesterol (TSC) and lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) concentrations in luxury diet animals than in their prudent diet counterparts (p's less than 0.05). Additionally, we monitored the occurrence of 21 behavioral acts frequently exhibited by this species in captivity. Of these behaviors, only contact aggression differed between dietary conditions (p less than 0.03), with prudent diet monkeys initiating more aggression than luxury diet animals. These results are consistent with studies linking relatively low serum cholesterol concentrations to violent or antisocial behavior in psychiatric and criminal populations and could be relevant to understanding the significant increase in violence-related mortality observed among people assigned to cholesterol-lowering treatment in clinical trials.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and social stress on body fat distribution in an animal model of women's health, the female cynomolgus macaque (Macaca fascicularis). DESIGNaSUBJECTS: Adult female cynomolgus monkeys were ovariectomized and fed an atherogenic diet for two years while housed in social groups of 3 ± 8 monkeys each. Animals were then fed a lipid-lowering diet and randomized into four experimental groups: a baseline group which was necropsied immediately and not included in the study reported here, 26 females fed diet only (CONTROL), 22 females fed diet plus conjugated equine estrogens (CEE), and 21 females fed the diet plus CEE and medroxyprogesterone acetate (CEE MPA). Treatment lasted 30 months. MEASUREMENTS: During the last nine months of treatment, social status was determined three times at three month intervals. At the end of the study, whole body obesity and fat distribution patterns were determined using anthropometry and computerized tomography (CT). RESULTS: The addition of a progestin to the estrogen replacement regimen administered to surgically postmenopausal monkeys, increased all anthropometric and CT measures of obesity except intra-abdominal fat. HRT had no effect on patterns of fat distribution. Socially-dominant, ovariectomized females were more obese than subordinates using both anthropometric and CT measurements of whole body obesity. Dominant females were more likely to have their fat deposited centrally as measured anthropometrically. However, CT measures revealed a trend for dominants to preferentially deposit fat in the subcutaneous abdominal depot in contrast to subordinates who deposited fat in the intra-abdominal depot. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that progestins, when administered in combination with estrogens, may increase fat deposition, particularly in subcutaneous depots. In addition, the social stress experienced by subordinate monkeys, may have mild effects on fat deposition patterns, even after removal of ovarian function as a factor. These observations may have implications for treatment recommendations in postmenopausal women. Lastly, CT may measure different characteristics of fat distribution than skinfolds and circumferences.

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Synaptic molecular characterization is limited for Alzheimers disease (AD). We used mass cytometry to quantify 38 probes in approximately 17 million single synaptic events from human brains without pathologic change or with pure AD or Lewy body disease (LBD), non-human primates (NHP), and PS/APP mice. Synaptic molecular integrity in humans and NHP was similar. Although not detected in human synapses, Aβ was in PS/APP mice synaptic events. Clustering and pattern identification of human synapses showed expected disease-specific differences, like increased hippocampal pathologic tau in AD and reduced caudate dopamine transporter in LBD, and revealed novel findings including increased hippocampal CD47 and lowered DJ1 in AD and higher ApoE in AD dementia. Our results were independently supported by multiplex ion beam imaging of intact tissue.