General Information

Lifestyle and  genetic predisposition are considered to be the main determinants of  non-communicable diseases in humans. Today, however, there is increasing evidence from studies in several distinct human populations in Europe and elsewhere, that many disorders occurring in adult life date back to influences  of the intra-uterine environment during prenatal time. Examples of illnesses for  which there is evidence of foetal origin are hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes and neurological disorders. In addition, behavioural disorders  in childhood and adolescent life may also be programmed in the prenatal period. Since it is generally accepted that a multitude of pre- and postnatal influences  are involved in pathophysiological processes that predispose individuals to such diseases, it is plausible to propose that there are factors triggering foetal  development, thus amplifying or minimising certain long-term processes. One identified trigger is hormonal disturbance such as high glucocorticoid exposure during pregnancy. However, most of the respective studies in humans have been restricted to either epidemiological or some physiological measurements that in  sum cannot explain the cause and basic mechanisms underlying the pathophysiological processes. Whilst many have argued on the basis of  conventional rodent and ruminant animal models to explain the links between prenatal events and the commonest human disorders, none has shown strict relevance to human biology.

Understanding  how such prenatal programming works, and knowledge of underlying  pathophysiological changes provide one of the most exciting challenges in  contemporary biomedical research. Since ethical constraints determine that mechanistic observations can only remain indirect in humans, more profound studies need to be conducted in a non-human primate, a species closely related to humans. Therefore, the EUPEAH programme proposes to investigate in the marmoset monkey, a non-human primate species, the evidence underpinning premature over-exposure to glucocorticoids as a key trigger of adult disease  programming.

The EUPEAH consortium provides the infrastructure to breed and house marmoset monkeys and  to perform multidisciplinary and strongly interconnected studies in a longitudinal approach by sharing biological material, technology, knowledge and  data between the partners. The establishment of a European non-human primate  bank (EPTB) for tissues and body fluids harmonise resource collection and distribution between diverse research facilities, preventing duplicate  collections across Europe, reducing the number of experimental animals thus contributing to animal welfare.

Besides state  of the art animal facilities, the consortium has methods for ultrasound examination of pregnancies, for measuring the endocrine and metabolic status in  plasma and urine samples, for behavioural analysis, for telemetry to measure blood pressure, non-invasive brain imaging (MRI), computer-assisted tomography (CT) to measure bone development as well as body fat deposits. Furthermore, the  following techniques and respective equipment are also set up in the laboratories of the EUPEAH partners: immunohistochemistry and a wide spectrum of cell and molecular biological methods including proteomics (quantitative PCR, 2D-SDS-PAGE, MALDI-TOF, LC-MS/MS) to quantify the impact of prenatal  dexamethasone treatment on various body systems.

To unravel gene expression profiles of different organs and allow the delineation of complex biological pathways a marmoset-specific cDNA microarray (EUMAMA) will be generated. This way, the optimum exploitation of technical expertise and scientific knowledge of the various groups is guaranteed, thereby increasing the efficiency and  performance of the individual partner institutions.

The need for non-human primates in biomedical research was defined by a statement of the Scientific Steering Committee of the European Commission and adopted at its meeting of 4-5 April 2002. Whether non-human primates are used for research, will need to be decided upon on a case-by-case basis, and following a careful assessment, which takes into account the justification, the possible existence of alternatives, ethical considerations and the problems that could result from not using the non-human primates. However, the Scientific Steering Committee considers that for certain experiments there are actually no alternatives to the use of non-human primates.

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updated:23.03.07             Created and maintained by  Ursula Buchhorn                 Impressum