As University of Iowa researchers get involved in Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) research, including studies on obesity, a resource they can turn to is the National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

At the UI Obesity Conference held March 8, Dr. Joseph Kemnitz, center director, explained the center’s functions and services.

The UW Primate Center is one of eight centers nationwide, and the only one in the Midwest. (The UW, like the UI, received a CTSA in September 2007.) The center has been increasing its capacity and is due for a new building expansion to additionally accommodate CTSA-related and other studies.

An interesting obesity-related impetus for establishing primate centers in the United States was increasing interest in cardiovascular disease, Kenmitz said.

A primate center in Sukhumi, Soviet Georgia, had established a primate model of sustained hypertension. James Watt, director of the National Heart Institute, and Paul Dudley White, personal physician of President Dwight Eisenhower (who had suffered a heart attack), visited the center in Sukhumi and rallied support for creating a national primate center based on the Soviet model. The idea evolved into the multiple centers now in existence.

Kemnitz, who has directed the center since 1996, noted the important role primate research plays in translational and clinical studies. “Medication studies require that a compound be shown to cause no harm in a whole animal before it can be tested clinically in humans. Thus, primate research plays a critical role,” he said.

“Without enough primate research opportunities, there would be a ‘bottleneck’ in bench-to-bedside advances. We do all we can to keep our center running efficiently. Developments have made it possible to conduct animal-based research using fewer animals,” he added.

The UW center includes two primary breeding colonies — Rhesus macaques (about 1,100) and common marmosets (about 250). A UW obesity study in the macaques shows they get many symptoms similar to those seen in humans, such as increased intra-abdominal fat and metabolic syndrome, and that there is higher incidence in certain family lines. In addition, UW studies have shown the macaques readily become overweight on a higher fat, Western diet.

Kemnitz said the three UW Primate Center fee-based services that are currently most important to CTSA research are: (1) Centralized Protocol Implementation Unit, which can help investigators perform their research; (2) Assay Services Unit, which analyzes hormones and metabolites in blood and other media; and (3) Pathology Services Unit, which can provide an array of clinical and anatomic pathology services, as well as digital imaging capabilities.

“The Centralized Protocol Implementation Unit is particularly helpful for researchers without any primate research experience,” Kemnitz said. “Our fully trained staff can actually conduct the experiments, and it’s cost-effective because you don’t have to pay for a technician at your own site.”

The center has three of its own primary research programs: (1) Reproductive and Regenerative Medicine, including maternal-fetal health, embryonic stem cells research, cell lineages, and transplantation; (2) Immunogenetics and Virology, including vaccine development; and (3) Aging and Metabolic Disease, including effects of caloric restriction on aging, diabetes, osteoporosis, menopause, Parkinson’s disease and obesity.

The primates at UW receive excellent care, including environmental enrichment involving free play, toys and some exposure to radio and television.