“The Guiding Principles for Animal Experiments Using Nonhuman Primates” has been adopted by unanimous consent at the 2nd General Assembly of PSJ held on June 14, 1986, in Nagoya. Three main points of view, i. e., (1) conservation of feral nonhuman primate resources, (2) animal welfare, and (3) good use of nonhuman primates as laboratory animals, have been comprehended in “the Guiding Principles” which consists of a preamble and twelve sections. The preamble explains PSJ's fundamental intent to draw up “the Guiding Principles”. Twelve sections are concerned with 1) judgement on appropriateness of experiment using nonhuman primates, 2) procurement of wild nonhuman primates, 3) quarantine, 4) health management for monkeys as well as for personnels working with monkeys, 5) feeding conditions, 6) experimental techniques and procedures, 7) euthanasia and clearance work for carcasses, 8) effective and multiple use of animals, 9) captive breeding and rearing, 10) publication of experimental results, 11) observance of rules and regulations related to protection and welfare of animals, and 12) establishment of an intramural system of inspection and review for animal experiments.
PSJ believes it is quite right to state that scientists who use nonhuman primates for their research should strictly observe “the Guiding Principles”.

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New guide for the care and use of laboratory primates in Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University was established and published in April in order to improve the husbandry of laboratory primates from the view of animal welfare. The guide was formed based on the US National Institute of Health 1985 guide which is now becoming an international standard. The monkey committee that is composed of members of the Institute, including at least one who is involved in animal experiments; one who is not; a veterinarian; and an expert from the care takers works as a monitoring committee. As for restraint of monkeys chairing beyond 24 hours is no longer permitted without consent from the monkey committee.

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Recently, we proposed a hypothesis that the primate neocortex may have evolved by means of the multiplication of cortical columns (column-multiplication hypothesis, Sawaguchi & Kubota, 1986). The aim of the present paper is to introduce our hypothesis to Japanese readers. The hypothesis is based on following findings; (1) the primate neocortical areas consist of anatomical and functional units of columns which are similar in size across several primate species, and; (2) the primate neocortex expansion is characterized by the multiplication of the cortical areas. In the hypothesis, evolutional mechanisms of advanced changes of the primate neocortex are explained by an analogy of “gene duplication theory” of genetics (Ohno, 1970). Further, the hypothesis predicts the existence of columns neutral for natural selection, genetic control upon the columns, intraspecies variation of the columns, and redundant structures and functions of the neocortex. Thus, the primate neocortex may have aquired not only adaptive functions, but also neutral functions, based on the columm-multiplications.

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Every variety of monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) against human lymphocyte antigens provides effective means for precise analysis of immunocompetent cells. The evolution of epitopes of lymphocyte surface molecules, e. g. T lymphocyte antigens and human leucocyte antigens (HLA), in primates have been examined using these MoAb. It has been fonnd that some epitopes were conservative in primate evolution while others were not, by assessment of the cross-reactivities of non-human primate lymphocytes to a panel of these MoAb. In this paper, I describe a relationship between the reactivities of primate leucocytes for MoAb of human lymphocytes and primate phylogeny, inter- and intra-specific variations of epitope expression, and the analysis of functional epitopes of a lymphocyte surface molecule. The reactivities of primate leucocytes to MoAb with the specificity of Japanese monkey major histocompatibility antigens (MHC) class II-like molecule are also discussed.

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