Slit-lamp studies of the rhesus monkey eye. I. Survey of the anterior segment.

Slit-lamp photographic studies of 144 caged rhesus monkeys, aged 2 months to 35 years, show age-related changes in anterior-chamber depth, lens thickness, anterior and posterior curvatures of the lens, and location of the posterior lens surface relative to the anterior corneal surface. For these parameters, as well as for those measured by other techniques, a difference in slope magnitude and (or) slope sign was found between the growth phase which lasts for 5-6 years, and the adult phase (greater than 5-6 years). Age-related changes in the adult rhesus eye are qualitatively similar in almost all aspects to those observed in the human eye, indicating that the rhesus is a good animal model for the study of human loss of accommodative amplitude.