Greenland shark lives up to 400 years - and its heart surprised scientists

An international team of researchers studied the heart tissue of the Greenland shark and compared it to the hearts of two other fish species: the short-lived turquoise killifish and the small deep-water lantern shark. The aim was to understand why the Greenland shark is able to live for centuries and how its body copes with ageing.

Details

It turned out that the Greenland shark's heart shows pronounced signs of aging. Scientists found fibrosis - overgrowth of connective tissue, accumulation of lipofuscin, which is often called "ageing pigment", as well as traces of oxidative stress and damage to cell structures.

Normally, such changes can impair heart function: tissue becomes less elastic, cells are less able to cope with the load, and the organ gradually loses efficiency. But in the Greenland shark, things look different. Despite these signs of aging, the animals studied were alive and physiologically active.

The authors believe that the secret may not be that the shark "doesn't age," but that its body knows how to withstand the effects of aging. In other words, the Greenland shark demonstrates not eternal youth, but exceptional biological resilience.

Why it matters

The study changes the conventional view of longevity. It often seems that long-lived animals should be better protected from age-related damage. But the Greenland shark shows a different scenario: damage accumulates, but the body continues to keep vital systems functioning.

This could be important for studying healthy aging in humans. Understanding how the shark's body compensates for age-related changes in the heart could suggest new directions for research into cardiovascular disease and age-related tissue resistance.

At the same time, we are not talking about the "secret of immortality" or a ready-made way to extend human life. Scientists are studying the underlying mechanisms that help one of the longest-lived vertebrates retain body functions for centuries.

Background

The Greenland shark lives in the cold waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic. It grows very slowly, has a low metabolism, moves very little and reaches sexual maturity extremely late - by about 150 years. All this makes it an unusual model for longevity studies.

Previous genetic studies have indicated that this species may have enhanced mechanisms related to DNA repair, cellular defence, anti-inflammatory processes and tumour resistance. The new work adds the heart to this picture: it ages, but doesn't seem to fail as quickly as might be expected.

Source

The study by Elena Chiavacci and co-authors is published in the journal Aging Cell in 2026: Resilience to Cardiac Aging in Greenland Shark Somniosus microcephalus. The authors studied age-related changes in the heart of the Greenland shark and concluded that this species is likely to be highly resilient to the effects of cardiac aging.