Abstract: Objective To screen the pathologic changes of retina of old monkeys to establish a spontaneous eye disease model for age related eye diseases. Methods Thirty-nine cynomolgus monkeys (age:11.9±2.05, min=9; max=17) and 13 macaques (age:15.5±5.2, min=7; max=24) were used to perform eye examination including fundus, and intraocular pressure(IOP). Blood glucose was evaluated through glucose tolerance test (GTT). Non-mydriatic fundus camera was used to examine the pathogenic changes of retinal, the suspicious cases were then imaged by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to evaluate the retinal structure. Results Three macaques and four cynomolgus were hyperglycemic, no diabetic retinopathy symptoms were any of the found in three animal. Thirteen cynomolgus and 6 macaques showed lens opacity in both eyes. The average IOP of cynomolgus was oculus dexter (OD):(15.98±3.315)mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa),oculus sinister (OS):(15.82±4.021)mmHg. The average IOP of macaque was OD:(14.9±3.867)mmHg, OS:(14.7±3.329)mmHg.One cynomolgus has high IOP in both eyes; fundus photo displayed an early change of glaucoma symptom. Fundus photography from 2 monkeys both eyes showed numerous drusen distributing throughout the whole retina. One retina displayed geographic serpiginous choroiditis in right eye.Conclusion In old monkeys eyes, macular degeneration, cataract, and glaucoma were observed with the symptom similar to those of human being. But no diabetic retinopathy (DR) symptoms was found in hyperglycemic cases, which may because the different pathologic change in primate animal or the pathologic change haven't occurred. Our study provided a primate animal source with spontaneous age related eye disease for studying the novel therapeutic agents or cell therapy for clinical trial.

Key words: primate animal eye disease model, diabetic retinopathy, age-related eye diseases