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Biogerontology (2012) 13:439443 DOI 10.1007/s10522-012-9388-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Life span of common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) at CLEA Japan breeding colony
Kazutoshi Nishijima Ryoichi Saitoh
Shin Tanaka Motoko Ohsato-Suzuki
Tamio Ohno Shuji Kitajima
Received: 6 March 2012 / Accepted: 19 June 2012 / Published online: 3 July 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract The life span and survival parameters of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) in a breeding colony at CLEA Japan, Inc. were investigated. The average life span of male marmosets was 148.5 6.1 (mean SE) months of age (M), which was signicantly longer (P \ 0.01) than that of females (111.7 6.0 M). Additionally, the male population reached 25-, 50-, 75- and 90 %-mortality at an older age than the female population. However, the maximum life span in males (259.9 M) was shorter than in females (262.5 M). The survival of females
shows a relatively continuous decline; however, the male marmosets show a slight decline in survival during the rst 79 years and then a dramatic decrease and another slight decline after 1416 year of age in survival, i.e., a lifespan curve similar to what is observed in colonies of aging rodents and humans. The sex-associated difference in life span was caused by reproductive burden on the females. The present study reported a longer than expected life span of the marmoset, and a long-lived animal can be a powerful model for senescence and longevity sciences.
Keywords Aging Animal model Primate
Sex difference Survival property
Introduction
In some elds of human medical research, nonhuman primates are more desirable animal models than laboratory animals, such as rodents, because of their close phylogenetic relationship with humans. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) have been employed in such research. However, using rhesus macaques has been complicated by the animals size, reproductive efciency and zoonoses (diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between animals and humans, such as cercopithecine herpesvirus 1). The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a small-sized primate weighing approximately 250600 g that has been bred in laboratories (Tardif et al. 2011). Thus, the
Kazutoshi Nishijima and Ryoichi Saitoh contributed equally to the present study.
K. Nishijima (&) S. Kitajima
Division of Biological Resources and Development, Analytic Research Center for Experimental Science, Saga University, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga...