The biology of aging in a social world: insights from free-ranging rhesus macaques

Abstract

Social adversity can increase the age-associated risk of disease and death, yet the biological mechanisms that link social adversities to aging remain poorly understood. Long-term naturalistic studies of nonhuman animals are crucial for integrating observations of social behavior throughout an individual"'"s life with detailed anatomical, physiological, and molecular measurements. Here, we synthesize the body of research from one such naturalistic study system, Cayo Santiago Island, which is home to the world's longest continuously monitored free-ranging population of rhesus macaques. We review recent studies of age-related variation in morphology, gene regulation, microbiome composition, and immune function. We also discuss ecological and social modifiers of age-markers in this population. In particular, we summarize how a major natural disaster, Hurricane Maria, affected rhesus macaque physiology and social structure and highlight the context-dependent and domain-specific nature of aging modifiers. Finally, we conclude by providing directions for future study, on Cayo Santiago and elsewhere, that will further our understanding of aging across different domains and how social adversity modifies aging processes.

An Evolutionary Model for the Ancient Origins of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

“…Such close evolutionary history to humans bestows considerable similarities in genomic, developmental, physiological, anatomical, neurological, behavioral and aging characteristics, as well as comparable breadth of natural disease susceptibility [10], including female hyperandrogenism, PCOS [8,9] and obesity [124]. Obesity in rhesus macaques is heritable [125], emulates that in humans [126][127][128] and may associate with human obesity risk genes [125], increased risk of T2DM [127,129], dyslipidemia [12,126,128,130] and cardiometabolic disease [131,132]. In female rhesus macaques, as in women, hyperandrogenism enhances obesity outcomes [128,130,133].…”