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01/19/2026 08:05
One Health: Extreme animal species as a key to human diseases
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Many animals live in extreme environments and have adapted their metabolism accordingly. Can this knowledge be used to develop solutions that help combat human diseases? With a meta-study, an international research team including the Research Institute for Wildlife Science and Ecology (FIWI) at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna set out to answer this question and identify new solutions. The focus of this One Health study is, among other things, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The scientific review of previously published studies published in the top journal “Diabetologia” took a closer look at “extreme animal species”. Led by Peter Stenvinkel from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the researchers examined the remarkable metabolic adaptations of animals living in extreme environments. The study provides insights into their resilience, flexibility and disease resistance. Species such as hibernating brown bears, migratory birds, cave fish, Greenland sharks and naked mole rats therefore exhibit unique metabolic properties that challenge conventional paradigms of metabolic regulation.
Novel solutions for human diseases
These adaptations – including resistance to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and metabolic aging – offer potential solutions to metabolic disorders in humans, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to scientists. Insights from comparative physiology, particularly into the mechanisms by which animals cope with food shortages, extreme temperatures and hypoxia, could help identify new therapeutic targets for promoting human health. Study co-author Johanna Painer-Gigler from FIWI says: “For example, hibernation can serve as a model for understanding metabolic diseases and provide insights into reversible insulin resistance and energy homeostasis. On this basis, novel treatment methods for metabolic diseases represent a realistic perspective.”
Live longer and healthier through high resilience
There is also a lot to learn about aging and resilience from long-lived species and their adaptation to environmental stress. According to the scientists, there is also a lot of valuable knowledge in the area of cardiovascular diseases and in the adaptability of resilient species to global environmental changes. Overall, the resilience of these animal species to adverse environmental conditions is often associated with healthy longevity and a low risk of disease.
Climate change – a danger also for animal species adapted to extremes
Scientists see climate change as the greatest danger – according to their findings, this also endangers the survival of animal species that are adapted to the most extreme environmental conditions. “We call for a holistic approach to species protection and environmental protection in order to preserve these species and the valuable insights they offer for controlling our metabolic health,” emphasizes study co-author Szilvia Kalogeropoulu from FIWI.
Contact for scientific information:
Dr. Johanna Painer-Gigler
Research Institute for Wildlife and Ecology (FIWI)
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni)
Johanna.Painer@vetmeduni.ac.at
Original publication:
The article “Comparative physiology and biomimetics in metabolic and environmental health: what can we learn from extreme animal phenotypes?” by Peter Stenvinkel, Peter Kotanko, Johanna Painer-Gigler, Paul G. Shiels, Pieter Evenepoel, Leon Schurgers, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Szilvia Kalogeropoulu, Joshua Schiffman and Richard J. Johnson was published in Diabetologia.
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Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, all interested persons
Biology, Zoology / agricultural and forest sciences
transregional, national
Research results, Scientific Publications
German
