Neurons with histopathological changes consistent with granulovacuolar degeneration
(GVD) were found in brain sections from aged cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca
fascicularis) with clinical and pathological signs of cognitive aging. To our knowledge,
this is the first reported description of GVD in non-human primates. GVD-like lesions
were found also in age-matched cognitively healthy subjects, albeit in lower numbers,
suggesting that they may relate to aging and the increase may have tendency to
increase with the memory deficits. The increased incidence of GVD-like lesions in
memory-impaired subjects with pahological backgrounds of senile plaques (SPs) and
tauopathy is, however, an interesting observation of relevance to the characterization of
pathologies in the spontaneous cynomolgus monkey model of human Alzheimer’s type
of brain pathology.