With aging there is a decline in the number of newly generated neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. In rodents and tree shrews, this age-related decrease in neurogenesis is evident long before the animals become aged. No previous studies have investigated whether primates exhibit a similar decline in hippocampal neurogenesis with aging. To investigate this possibility, young to middle aged adult common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) were injected with BrdU and perfused 3 weeks later. The number of newly generated cells in the subgranular zone/granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus was significantly lower in older animals and decreased linearly with age. A similar age-related decline in new cells was observed in the subventricular zone but not in the hilar region of the dentate gyrus. These data demonstrate that a substantial decrease in neurogenesis occurs before the onset of old age in the adult marmoset brain, suggesting the possibility that similar alterations occur in the human brain.aging ͉ BrdU ͉ dentate gyrus ͉ hippocampus ͉ subventricular zone N ew neurons are continually added to the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus throughout life in several species, from rodents to humans (1-8). Evidence of neurogenesis has been observed in the dentate gyrus even in aged animals, including rodents over 2 years of age (9-14), dogs as old as 15 years (15), and humans as old as 72 years (4). However, substantial reductions in adult neurogenesis occur by old age in rodents and dogs (7,9,(15)(16)(17). In adult rats, mice, and tree shrews, rates of neurogenesis begin to slow by 1 year of age, well before the onset of senescence (9,13,14,16,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Some age-associated cognitive deficits first appear in middle aged individuals, considerably before old age (23-25), raising the possibility that reduced neurogenesis may contribute to these problems.There are data suggesting that non-human primates exhibit a similar decrease in neurogenesis with advancing age. We have observed reduced numbers of proliferating cells and immature granule neurons in the dentate gyrus of middle aged (7-16 years) and aged (23 years) macaque monkeys (6). However, the small sample size in that study precluded any systematic analysis of the relationship between age and neurogenesis. Thus, it remains unclear whether neurogenesis in the adult primate brain is sensitive to aging and, moreover, whether the decline in neurogenesis becomes evident before old age. Evidence for an agerelated decrease in neurogenesis in the nonhuman primate brain would suggest that similar alterations may occur in the human brain, where it is more difficult to study (26).The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a New World monkey that reaches sexual maturity at Ϸ1.5 years of age and has a lifespan that ranges from Ϸ8 to 16 years (27). Senescence in marmosets begins around the age of 8-10 years as measured by neuropathology related to Alzheimer's (28) and Parkinson's (29) diseases, hearing loss (30), and cartilage aging (31). Here, we examined whether...