Spontaneous Disease and Pathology of Naked Mole-Rats

The naked truth: a comprehensive clarification and classification of current ‘myths’ in naked mole‐rat biology

“…( 2021 ) extensively catalogued diseases observed in captive naked mole‐rat colonies. Based upon fairly large numbers of post‐mortem analyses it is clear that, relative to other mammals, naked mole‐rats exhibit a low incidence of non‐infectious chronic diseases or age‐related degenerative diseases, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration and cancer (Edrey et al ., 2011 ; Buffenstein et al ., 2012 ; Delaney et al ., 2013 , 2016 a , 2021 ; Ward, Cartoceti & Delaney, 2020 ). Similarly, Braude et al .…”

“…Adult individuals both in the wild (Hill et al ., 1957 ) and in captivity also exhibit a very low incidence of infectious diseases (Delaney et al ., 2021 ). However, an acute death syndrome has been anecdotally reported from multiple institutions where several animals within a particular colony that previously looked healthy are found dead with no signs of illness or lesions, suggestive of an acute contagious infection.…”

“…Furthermore, we disagree that these findings are undermined by earlier incidence reports of reduced activity or other physiological or morphological changes in some older animals (Edrey et al ., 2011 ; Lewis & Buffenstein, 2016 ; Delaney et al ., 2021 ). For example, these studies have reported that skin colour becomes more uniform and paler in older subordinates as well as in breeders at any age.…”

“…The naked mole‐rat has not only garnered attention for being a eusocial mammal (Jarvis, 1981 ; Holmes & Goldman, 2021 ), highly specialised for life underground through sensory (Lewin et al ., 2021 ; Vice et al ., 2021 ) and ecophysiological adaptations (Buffenstein & Craft, 2021 ), but it has also been used in biomedical studies. These include research on pain (Park et al ., 2008 ; Eigenbrod et al ., 2019 ) hypoxia tolerance (Larson et al ., 2014 ; Park et al ., 2017 , 2021 ; Ivy et al ., 2020 ), cardiac function (Grimes et al ., 2014 b ), cancer (Tian et al ., 2013 ; Miyawaki et al ., 2016 ; Taylor, Milone & Rodriguez, 2017 ; Seluanov et al ., 2018 ; Shepard & Kissil, 2020 ; Delaney, Imai & Buffenstein, 2021 ), neuropeptidergic control of reproduction and behaviour (Coen et al ., 2021 ), and ageing (Buffenstein, 2005 ; Lewis & Buffenstein, 2016 ; Ruby, Smith & Buffenstein, 2018 ). Collectively, these studies constitute a new paradigm recognising the naked mole‐rat as an important non‐traditional biomedical model for understanding how evolutionary processes optimise physiological mechanisms for survival under adverse conditions encountered in challenging habitats.…”

Somatotropic Axis, Pace of Life and Aging

“…This involves directing more resources to body maintenance and repair via a variety of molecular and cellular mechanisms. Studies of long-living species provided evidence for improved anti-oxidant defenses, increased telomerase activity, improved DNA repair and genome maintenance, as well as changes in gene expression believed to reduce risk of cancer ( 6 – 8 , 11 , 46 , 47 ). Inverse relationship between pace-of-life and longevity was also shown to apply to birds and involves differences in behavioral characteristics such as readiness to undertake high risk activities ( 18 , 48 , 49 ).…”