| Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology |
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| Behavioral Neuroscience Section -- NIA Primate Aging Study |
| Cardiovascular Studies: Two additional studies of age-related disease focus on cardiovascular disease and dietary interventions. These studies are being conducted in collaboration with the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Science (LCS). Although there is considerable evidence linking salt intake to hypertension, how this dietary variable is involved in remodeling of the vascular wall to affect arterial stiffness is still unknown. The effect of an incrementally increased salt load on vascular stiffness and modulation of this response by production of an endogenous ligand, marinobufagenin, is being studied in nine old normotensive male rhesus monkeys. |
| A second study in progress consists of monkeys over a broad age range eating either a diet moderately high in cholesterol or a low cholesterol control diet. The aims of this study are threefold: 1) To demonstrate links between the vascular changes present with aging and the early development and progression of atherosclerotic lesions; 2) To determine plasma biochemical markers which correlate with age-related vascular remodeling and atherogenesis; and 3) To validate the value of contrast enhanced-magnetic resonance imaging as a noninvasive diagnosis of atherosclerosis. |
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