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Aging and sex affect soluble alpha klotho levels in bonobos and chimpanzees
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| Background: Throughout life, physiological homeostasis is challenged and the capacity to cope with such challenges declines with increasing age. In many species, sex differences exist in life expectancy. Sex-specific differences have been related to extrinsic factors like mate competition and/or intrinsic proximate mechanisms such as hormonal changes. In humans, an intrinsic factor related to aging is soluble alpha klotho (alpha-Kl). Both sexes show an age-related decline in alpha-Kl, but throughout life women have higher levels than men of the same age. Sex differences in alpha-Kl have been linked to a shorter lifespan, as well as to specific morbidity factors such as atherosclerosis and arteries calcifications. In non-human animals, information on alpha-Kl levels is rare and restricted to experimental work. Our cross-sectional study is the first on alpha-Kl levels in two long-lived species: bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). As in most mammals, female bonobos and chimpanzees have longer life expectancy than males. Methods: We measured serum alpha-Kl levels of 140 subjects from 16 zoos with an ELISA to examine if alpha-Kl levels reflect this difference in life expectancy. Results: In both species and in both sexes, alpha-Kl levels declined with age suggesting that this marker has potential for aging studies beyond humans. We also found species-specific differences. Adult female bonobos had higher alpha-Kl levels than males, a difference that corresponds to the pattern found in humans. In chimpanzees, we found the opposite: males had higher alpha-Kl levels than females. Conclusion: We suggest that contrasting sex differences in adult alpha-Kl levels mirror the dominance relations between females and males of the two Pan species; and that this might be related to corresponding sex differences in their exposure to stress. In humans, higher cortisol levels were found to be related to lower alpha-Kl levels. We conclude that there is great potential for studying aging processes in hominoids, and perhaps also in other non-human primates, by measuring alpha-Kl levels. To better understand the causes for sex differences in this aging marker, consideration of behavioural parameters such as competition and stress exposure will be required as well as other physiological markers. |
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English
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Frontiers in zoology. - London | |
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London : 2018
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1742-9994
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15(2018), 10 p.
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35
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000445131100001
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30250491
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E-only publicatie
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