Dataset Information

Sex Differences in Age-Related Decline of Urinary Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein-3 Levels in Adult Bonobos and Chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: There is increasing interest in the characterization of normative senescence in humans. To assess to what extent aging patterns in humans are unique, comparative data from closely related species, such as non-human primates, can be very useful. Here, we use data from bonobos and chimpanzees, two closely related species that share a common ancestor with humans, to explore physiological markers that are indicative of aging processes. Many studies on aging in humans focus on the somatotropic axis, consisting of growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), and IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs). In humans, IGFBP-3 levels decline steadily with increasing age. We used urinary IGFBP-3 levels as an alternative endocrine marker for IGF-I to identify the temporal pattern known to be related with age-related changes in cell proliferation, growth, and apoptosis. We measured urinary IGFBP-3 levels in samples from 71 bonobos and 102 chimpanzees. Focusing on samples from individuals aged 10?years or older, we found that urinary IGFBP-3 levels decline in both ape species with increasing age. However, in both species, females start with higher urinary IGFBP-3 levels than males, experience a steeper decline with increasing age, and converge with male levels around the age of 30-35?years. Our measurements of urinary IGFBP-3 levels indicate that bonobos and chimpanzees mirror human patterns of age-related decline in IGFBP-3 in older individuals (<10?years) of both sexes. Moreover, such as humans, both ape species show sex-specific differences in IGFBP-3 levels with females having higher levels than males, a result that correlates with sex differences in life expectancy. Using changes in urinary IGFBP-3 levels as a proxy for changes in GH and IGF-I levels that mark age-related changes in cell proliferation, this approach provides an opportunity to investigate trade-offs in life-history strategies in cross-sectional and in longitudinal studies, both in captivity and in the wild.

SUBMITTER: Behringer V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4994059 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Sex Differences in Age-Related Decline of Urinary Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein-3 Levels in Adult Bonobos and Chimpanzees.

Behringer Verena V Wudy Stefan A SA Blum Werner F WF Stevens Jeroen M G JM Remer Thomas T Boesch Christophe C Hohmann Gottfried G

Frontiers in endocrinology 20160823

There is increasing interest in the characterization of normative senescence in humans. To assess to what extent aging patterns in humans are unique, comparative data from closely related species, such as non-human primates, can be very useful. Here, we use data from bonobos and chimpanzees, two closely related species that share a common ancestor with humans, to explore physiological markers that are indicative of aging processes. Many studies on aging in humans focus on the somatotropic axis, ...[more]

PMID: 27602019

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Project description:BackgroundThroughout 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 (?-Kl). Both sexes show an age-related decline in ?-Kl, but throughout life women have higher levels than men of the same age. Sex differences in ?-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 ?-Kl levels is rare and restricted to experimental work. Our cross-sectional study is the first on ?-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.MethodsWe measured serum ?-Kl levels of 140 subjects from 16 zoos with an ELISA to examine if ?-Kl levels reflect this difference in life expectancy.ResultsIn both species and in both sexes, ?-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 ?-Kl levels than males, a difference that corresponds to the pattern found in humans. In chimpanzees, we found the opposite: males had higher ?-Kl levels than females.ConclusionWe suggest that contrasting sex differences in adult ?-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 ?-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 ?-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.

Project description:In several group-living species, individuals' social preferences are thought to be influenced by cooperation. For some societies with fission-fusion dynamics, sex-specific association patterns reflect sex differences in cooperation in within- and between-group contexts. In our study, we investigated this hypothesis further by comparing sex-specific association patterns in two closely related species, chimpanzees and bonobos, which differ in the level of between-group competition and in the degree to which sex and kinship influence dyadic cooperation. Here, we used long-term party composition data collected on five chimpanzee and two bonobo communities and assessed, for each individual of 10 years and older, the sex of its top associate and of all conspecifics with whom it associated more frequently than expected by chance. We found clear species differences in association patterns. While in all chimpanzee communities males and females associated more with same-sex partners, in bonobos males and females tended to associate preferentially with females, but the female association preference for other females is lower than in chimpanzees. Our results also show that, for bonobos (but not for chimpanzees), association patterns were predominantly driven by mother-offspring relationships. These species differences in association patterns reflect the high levels of male-male cooperation in chimpanzees and of mother-son cooperation in bonobos. Finally, female chimpanzees showed intense association with a few other females, and male chimpanzees showed more uniform association across males. In bonobos, the most differentiated associations were from males towards females. Chimpanzee male association patterns mirror fundamental human male social traits and, as in humans, may have evolved as a response to strong between-group competition. The lack of such a pattern in a closely related species with a lower degree of between-group competition further supports this notion.

Project description:Sex differences in immatures predict behavioural differences in adulthood in many mammal species. Because most studies have focused on sex differences in social interactions, little is known about possible sex differences in 'preparation' for adult life with regards to tool use skills. We investigated sex and age differences in object manipulation in immature apes. Chimpanzees use a variety of tools across numerous contexts, whereas bonobos use few tools and none in foraging. In both species, a female bias in adult tool use has been reported. We studied object manipulation in immature chimpanzees at Kalinzu (Uganda) and bonobos at Wamba (Democratic Republic of Congo). We tested predictions of the 'preparation for tool use' hypothesis. We confirmed that chimpanzees showed higher rates and more diverse types of object manipulation than bonobos. Against expectation, male chimpanzees showed higher object manipulation rates than females, whereas in bonobos no sex difference was found. However, object manipulation by male chimpanzees was play-dominated, whereas manipulation types of female chimpanzees were more diverse (e.g., bite, break, carry). Manipulation by young immatures of both species was similarly dominated by play, but only in chimpanzees did it become more diverse with age. Moreover, in chimpanzees, object types became more tool-like (i.e., sticks) with age, further suggesting preparation for tool use in adulthood. The male bias in object manipulation in immature chimpanzees, along with the late onset of tool-like object manipulation, indicates that not all (early) object manipulation (i.e., object play) in immatures prepares for subsistence tool use. Instead, given the similarity with gender differences in human children, object play may also function in motor skill practice for male-specific behaviours (e.g., dominance displays). In conclusion, even though immature behaviours almost certainly reflect preparation for adult roles, more detailed future work is needed to disentangle possible functions of object manipulation during development.

Dataset Information

Sex Differences in Age-Related Decline of Urinary Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein-3 Levels in Adult Bonobos and Chimpanzees.

Publications

Sex Differences in Age-Related Decline of Urinary Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein-3 Levels in Adult Bonobos and Chimpanzees.

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