Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) is a chronic disease with a high prevalence worldwide. Human literature suggests factors beyond well-known risk factors (e.g., age, body mass index) for T2D: cytomegalovirus serostatus, season of birth, maternal age, birth weight, and depression. Nothing is known, however, about whether these variables are influential in primate models of T2D.
Methods: Using a retrospective methodology, we identified 22 cases of spontaneously occurring T2D among rhesus monkeys at our facility. A control sample of n = 1199 was identified.
Results: Animals born to mothers that were ≤5.5 years of age, and animals that showed heightened Activity and Emotionality in response to brief separation in infancy, had a greater risk for development of T2D in adulthood.
Conclusions: Knowledge of additional risk factors for T2D could help colony managers better identify at-risk animals and enable diabetes researchers to select animals that might be more responsive to their manipulations.
Keywords: animal models; birth weight; cytomegalovirus; depression; maternal age; season of birth.
© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Medical Primatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.