Abstract
An animal model for senescence has been developed during these 20 years at Dept. of Senescence Biology, Chest Disease Research Institute, Kyoto University. The characteristics of ageing dynamics in this model is designated as accelerated senescence, so this model is named “Senescence Accelerated Mouse (SAM) .” SAM consists of 2 series; SAM-P (accelerated senescenceprone mouse) and SAM-R (accelerated senescence-resistant mouse) . The former are SAM-P/1, -P/2, -P/3, -P/4, -P/6, -P/7, -P/8 and the latter are SAM-R/1, -R/2 and -R/3.
Senescence phenomena are accelerated in the SAM-P series and characterized by a shorter life span and early manifestation of various signs of senescence, including alteration of physical activity, loss of hair glossiness, increasing coarseness of the hair and the hair loss, periophthalmic lesions, increased lordokyphosis of the spine and so on, after a normal process of development. Characteristic pathologies closely associated with senescence observed in SAM are senile amyloidosis in SAM-P/1 and -P/2, senile cataract in SAM-P/3 and SAM-R/3, senile osteoporosis in SAM-P/6, deficits in learning and memory in SAM-P/8 and degenerative arthritis in SAM-P/3. The murine model SAM will be a valuable tool to clarify the pathogenesis of age-associated diseases and also to reveal the basic mechanism of ageing. The genetic background related to development of this model is discussed.
