Role of the nonhuman primate for research related to women's health

Abstract

This overview of the current status of medical problems that affect women is related to current studies on pathophysiology and therapeutic interventions using nonhuman primates to demonstrate the utility of the primate model for the study of disease processes in women. The current medical literature on women's health is compared with the literature on nonhuman primate research. The findings reviewed in the articles of ILAR Journal Volume 45 Issue 2 of 2004 are evaluated in the context of the scope and problems associated with disease entities in women. Nonhuman primate research with known information regarding women's disease is discussed, and the utility of the animal model for the study of human disease is highlighted, based on its significant relevance due to similarities of nonhuman primate and human subjects' physiology, metabolism, and responses to therapeutic interventions. Additional advantages of the animal model include the ability to control the experimental environment and the capacity to perform chronic study procedures. These findings allow us to utilize the nonhuman primate as the most relevant model in the animal world for the study of human disease processes.