"Physiologic" Jaundice in Newborn Rhesus Monkey

Abstract

Introduction Research into the etiology of human kernicterus has been hampered by the lack of any satisfactory experimental model. A number of animal species, cats, rats, rabbits,1 have been used, but the exact neuropathologic findings of kernicterus have not yet been reproduced experimentally. These animals do not have physiologic jaundice, but they do have deficient hepatic glucuronyl transferase activity in the newborn period. The only known animal species in which kernicterus occurs spontaneously is the Gunn rat,² but it is not an entirely satisfactory experimental model due to both its small size and to breeding difficulties. The gestational physiology, fetal development, birth, and postnatal growth of the rhesus monkey have been studied enough to know that it is more easily comparable to man than are other laboratory animals.³ There have been no previously reported studies on the hematology of the newborn period in the rhesus monkey. Our observations