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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Greenland sharks live for centuries — and their eyes stay remarkably healthy the whole time. New research from UC Irvine found no signs of retinal cell death in these ancient animals, along with active vision proteins tuned for deep-sea light. Scientists believe DNA repair mechanisms may be the key, and the findings could one day help fight age-related eye diseases like macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Greenland sharks are the longest-living vertebrates on Earth, with some surviving up to 400 years. Scientists long assumed they were functionally blind — their eyes look cloudy, and parasites frequently attach directly to their eyeballs. But new research published in Nature Communications by UC Irvine's Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk and colleagues tells a very different story.
The team analyzed preserved eye tissue from sharks caught near Greenland between 2020 and 2024. They found no evidence of retinal cell death and discovered that rhodopsin — a protein critical for low-light vision — was still active and specifically tuned to detect blue light, perfectly suited for the faint illumination of Arctic depths. A DNA repair mechanism may be responsible for keeping the sharks' eyes functioning across centuries without the degeneration typically associated with aging.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: Age-related vision loss affects millions of people worldwide, and current treatments remain limited. By studying how Greenland shark eyes stay healthy for hundreds of years, researchers may uncover new biological strategies to protect human vision — offering a potential roadmap for preventing some of the most common and debilitating eye conditions.
