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Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?

The Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) of the Cape Peninsula are established raiders of human food, leading to widespread conflict between this intelligent, adaptable species and humans. The modern Western diet that these baboons have become exposed to has many deleterious effects on health, including o...

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Main Author: Van Velden, Julia
Other Authors: Reed, Cecile C
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Van Velden, Julia
author2 Reed, Cecile C
author_browse Reed, Cecile C
Van Velden, Julia
author_facet Reed, Cecile C
Van Velden, Julia
author_sort Van Velden, Julia
collection Thesis
description The Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) of the Cape Peninsula are established raiders of human food, leading to widespread conflict between this intelligent, adaptable species and humans. The modern Western diet that these baboons have become exposed to has many deleterious effects on health, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this population of baboons have lowered GLUT-­‐4 transporter protein levels in comparison to wild-­‐feeding baboons, as an indication of insulin abnormalities. GLUT-­‐4 levels were analysed via Western Blot and DXA scanning was used to compare physical characteristics between these two groups. No significant difference in GLUT-­‐4 levels was found, however the two groups differed in three physical variables, with the semi-­‐provisioned Peninsula group having higher total weight (kg)(p<0,05), total body lean mass (kg) (p<0,01) and bone mineral content (kg)(p<0,001) than the wild-­‐feeding controls. These results indicate that male individuals from the Peninsula population are bigger but not fatter than wild-­‐feeding male baboons from the Eastern Cape population. Although it could not be determined whether human food is causing insulin abnormalities in the Cape Peninsula’s population of Chacma baboons, this study indicates that this is a promising area of research, likely to affect the management strategies used on this population.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7626
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:46:02.545Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7626 Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes? Van Velden, Julia Reed, Cecile C Kohn, Tertius The Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) of the Cape Peninsula are established raiders of human food, leading to widespread conflict between this intelligent, adaptable species and humans. The modern Western diet that these baboons have become exposed to has many deleterious effects on health, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this population of baboons have lowered GLUT-­‐4 transporter protein levels in comparison to wild-­‐feeding baboons, as an indication of insulin abnormalities. GLUT-­‐4 levels were analysed via Western Blot and DXA scanning was used to compare physical characteristics between these two groups. No significant difference in GLUT-­‐4 levels was found, however the two groups differed in three physical variables, with the semi-­‐provisioned Peninsula group having higher total weight (kg)(p<0,05), total body lean mass (kg) (p<0,01) and bone mineral content (kg)(p<0,001) than the wild-­‐feeding controls. These results indicate that male individuals from the Peninsula population are bigger but not fatter than wild-­‐feeding male baboons from the Eastern Cape population. Although it could not be determined whether human food is causing insulin abnormalities in the Cape Peninsula’s population of Chacma baboons, this study indicates that this is a promising area of research, likely to affect the management strategies used on this population. 2014-09-22T12:00:09Z 2014-09-22T12:00:09Z 2013 Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7626 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Van Velden, Julia
Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
thesis_degree_str Bachelor's / Honours
title Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
title_full Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
title_fullStr Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
title_full_unstemmed Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
title_short Metabolic changes to GLUT-4 levels in urban Chacma baboons on the Cape Peninsula: raiding their way to type 2 diabetes?
title_sort metabolic changes to glut 4 levels in urban chacma baboons on the cape peninsula raiding their way to type 2 diabetes
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7626
work_keys_str_mv AT vanveldenjulia metabolicchangestoglut4levelsinurbanchacmababoonsonthecapepeninsularaidingtheirwaytotype2diabetes

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