Research in the basic biology of ageing is increasingly identifying mechanisms and modifiers of ageing in short-lived organisms such as worms and mice. The ultimate goal of such work is to improve human health, particularly in the growing segment of the population surviving into old age. Thus far, few interventions have robustly transcended species boundaries in the laboratory, suggesting that changes in approach are needed to avoid costly failures in translational human research. In this review, we discuss both well-established and alternative model organisms for ageing research and outline how research in nonhuman primates is sorely needed, first, to translate findings from short-lived organisms to humans, and second, to understand key aspects of ageing that are unique to primate biology. We focus on rhesus macaques as a particularly promising model organism for ageing research owing to their social and physiological similarity to humans as well as the existence of key resources that have been developed for this species. As a case study, we compare gene regulatory signatures of ageing in the peripheral immune system between humans and rhesus macaques from a free-ranging study population in Cayo Santiago. We show that both mRNA expression and DNA methylation signatures of immune ageing are broadly shared between macaques and humans, indicating strong conservation of the trajectory of ageing in the immune system. We conclude with a review of key issues in the biology of ageing for which macaques and other nonhuman primates may uniquely contribute valuable insights, including the effects of social gradients on health and ageing. We anticipate that continuing research in rhesus macaques and other nonhuman primates will play a critical role in conjunction with the model organism and human biodemographic research in ultimately improving translational outcomes and extending health and longevity in our ageing population.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process’.

对衰老基本生物学的研究越来越多地确定蠕虫和老鼠等短命生物的衰老机制和调节剂。此类工作的最终目标是改善人类健康，特别是在越来越多的老年人口中。到目前为止，实验室中很少有干预措施能够有力地超越物种界限，这表明需要改变方法以避免转化人类研究中的代价高昂的失败。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了用于衰老研究的成熟模型生物和替代模型生物，并概述了如何迫切需要对非人类灵长类动物进行研究，首先，将发现从短命生物转化为人类，其次，了解衰老的关键方面这是灵长类生物学所独有的。由于恒河猴与人类的社会和生理相似性以及为该物种开发的关键资源的存在，我们将恒河猴作为一种特别有前途的衰老研究模式生物。作为案例研究，我们比较了来自圣地亚哥岛自由放养研究人群的人类和恒河猴之间外周免疫系统衰老的基因调控特征。我们表明免疫衰老的 mRNA 表达和 DNA 甲基化特征在猕猴和人类之间广泛共享，表明免疫系统中衰老轨迹的强大保守性。最后，我们回顾了衰老生物学中的关键问题，猕猴和其他非人类灵长类动物可能对这些问题提供独特的宝贵见解，包括社会梯度对健康和衰老的影响。

这篇文章是主题问题“灵长类动物衰老过程的进化”的一部分。