Comparative Studies: Lipid Metabolism in the Great Apes and Other Primates

It has long been know that significant disease risks are associated with quality and type of diet. In the genomics era, it has become clear that risk for specific diseases such as diabetes and atherosclerosis, as well as certain types of cancer, are associated with genetic risk factors and the environmental effect of diet. Thus, longevity and fertility are now factors for which the influence of diet can be studied in altogether new ways.

Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of illness and death in both humans and great apes. Utilizing frozen tissue samples and cell cultures from the Frozen Zoo®, a major collaborative study has been launched supported by National Institutes of Health funding to compare in great apes and other primates the DNA sequences of genes involved in lipid metabolism, especially those known to be associated with lipid disorders in humans. The regulation of these genes and functional consequences of the changes in genetic DNA sequences among humans, great apes, and other non-human primates are also being investigated.