CHAPTER 13 – Degenerative Diseases

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a selected set of degenerative diseases chosen from three large groups of such disorders. One of these groups consists of degenerative diseases described in man as well as in free-living nonhuman primates. The second contains diseases of human beings that can also be produced in other primates by experimental means. The third consists of conditions not yet reported in apes and monkeys but that may soon be studied also in these animals because the results of recent research indicate that nonhuman primates may serve as models for their investigation. Degenerative diseases have been treated from the point of view of the pathologist who is primarily interested in the ills of man and who uses nonhuman primates only as an experimental model. The emphasis has been on phenomena easily observed in the gross specimen and with the aid of the ordinary optical microscope. While nonhuman primates cannot furnish with answers to all medical problems in man and caution is necessary especially in the study of degenerative diseases, frequently more facts applicable to man can be derived from an experiment on a few chimpanzees than on dozens of rats. The more extensive use of apes and monkeys in applied medical research is necessitated by the growing need for the type of study that, unfortunately, has revealed a declining tendency during recent years.