Age related clonal hematopoiesis in rhesus macaque

The current study examined the presence and prevalence of age related clonal hematopoiesis (ARCH) in the peripheral blood granulocytes of aged rhesus macaques (RM, 16 - 40 yrs). 56 ARCH gene exon, previously implicated in human ARCH, were enriched using a RM specific probe set for eventual targeted deep sequencing. Results show that aged RM are carriers of ARCH similar to human. As the only animal organism so far to be found with human ARCH, RM can be potential preclinical models for testing therapies interrupting ARCH related pathological pathways.