Biologists studied livers transplanted between 1990 and 2022 and found 25 unusual organs that could remain functional for over 100 years, and scientists concluded that a liver transplanted from older persons would last longer than that removed from young donors.
The researchers examined 25,406 transplanted livers and identified a specific group of organs that had lived for a total of over 100 years, a combination of pre- and pre-deplantation age, some of which had been in operation for 108 years.
It was particularly surprising to scientists that 100-year-old livers had been transplanted from donors with an average age of 84.7 years, and it was generally believed that organs from young donors were longer, but the results of the current study presented a completely different picture, especially in the case of liver transplantation.
Since the liver is a regenerative organ, the small and remaining parts of the liver in the donor's bodies and the recipient grow into a fully functional, healthy organ, but not every transplant operation is successful because the recipient's body can reject the transplant due to various factors. For example, sometimes the genetic composition of the donor liver is very different from the replaced liver, and this forces the recipient's immune system to attack and reject the transplanted organ.
Another factor that results in a liver transplant failure or limits the age of the transplanted organ is a high level of transaminase, which is important for the normal functioning of the liver and the extraction of toxins from the human body. In the course of the study, scientists found that the liver from older donors is characterized by a low level of transaminase, making it more compatible and durable than the transplants from young donors.