Individual chimpanzee data used in analyses.;Raw data for Gamma-GTP analysis.;R script for generating statistical results. from Hepatitis C virus infection reduces the lifespan of chimpanzees used in biomedical research

Chimpanzees were used in hepatitis research for over three decades with the aim to identify and develop treatments for the virus, a leading cause of chronic liver disease in humans. We used a dataset of 120 chimpanzees housed at a single institution in Japan, 22 of whom became chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), to examine whether HCV infection results in a reduced lifespan as reported in humans. Survival analysis showed that HCV carriers experienced a higher mortality risk compared with non-carriers. Although no chimpanzee died from hepatic disease, carriers showed higher γGTP levels compared with non-carriers suggesting that HCV infection negatively affected their liver condition. These results provide evidence that special attention is necessary to monitor the long-term condition of ex-biomedical primates.

黑猩猩曾被用于肝炎研究长达三十余年，旨在识别并开发针对该病毒的治疗手段——该病毒是人类慢性肝病的首要致病诱因。本研究采用日本单一机构饲养的120只黑猩猩的数据集，其中22只慢性感染丙型肝炎病毒（hepatitis C virus，HCV），以验证HCV感染是否会如人类中所报道的那样缩短宿主寿命。生存分析结果显示，HCV感染者的死亡风险显著高于非感染者。尽管所有受试黑猩猩均未死于肝脏疾病，但HCV感染者的γ-谷氨酰转移酶（γGTP）水平显著高于非感染者，提示HCV感染对其肝脏健康产生了负面影响。本研究结果表明，有必要对曾用于生物医学研究的非人灵长类动物的长期健康状况进行重点监测。