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Does a transplanted organ stay a different age to the person it’s in?

When it comes to organ donation, our expert Roi Paul Nathan says age is just a number – unless you’re talking about how long the organ has been in transit.

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You might be too old to live with your parents, to pull off that outfit, or to become an Olympic champion. But one thing you’ll never be too old for is donating an organ. According to an article by the BBC, a 19-year-old woman in Turkey needed a new liver – and fast. With limited options, she had no choice but to accept a liver from a recently deceased 93-year-old. That recipient is now a healthy 26-year-old and recently celebrated her life-saving liver’s 100th birthday. This goes to show that at least in the world of organ transplants, age gaps don’t matter. What does matter is making sure the donated organ is kept alive long enough to make it to the recipient. “As soon as the organ is harvested, it begins to die,” says Roi Paul Nathan, CEO at Ela Pharma, a biotechnology company focused on preventing and treating necrosis.

How long can an organ stay alive outside the body?

Necrosis, one of the main modes of cell death, consists of a cascade of cellular and molecular events that ultimately lead to an organ’s death. “Because it is caused by a lack of blood and oxygen getting to the tissue, necrosis is the nemesis of organ transplants,” adds Nathan. While each organ is affected differently by necrosis (hearts and lungs succumb the quickest, while kidneys tend to last the longest), unless successfully transplanted, all will ultimately die. While the necrosis process can be slowed using cold storage or perfusion machines, Nathan says there is still a great need for novel technologies that can increase the lifespan of harvested organs. Necrosis not only makes transporting organs extremely difficult, it also significantly restricts who is able to receive them. “Because of this restricted timeline, the recipient has to be within a certain geographic area,” remarks Nathan. “Furthermore, due to the limited time physicians have to prepare for a transplant, the recipient needs to be close to the necessary surgical facilities.”

Extending the life-saving window for organ transplant

Ela Pharma, with the support of EU funding, is working to extend the transplant timeline by prolonging the life of an organ’s cells. “Necrosis has long been seen as an unregulated process, meaning there wasn’t much we could do about it,” explains Nathan. “But our research discovered that necrosis is in fact regulated by a specific enzyme.” Focusing on this enzyme, Ela Pharma hopes to be able to postpone necrosis. The company has already demonstrated that it is possible to put the cell dying process on pause long enough to increase the opportunity to get the organ from donor to recipient. They’re now working to extend that timeline further – up to 24 hours – which would represent a step change in terms of how far organs could be transported. “In organ transplants, there’s a lot of dots to connect, and the more time we have to connect those dots, the more lives, young and old, we’ll be able to save,” concludes Nathan. Click here to find out more about Nathan’s research: New approach to the preservation of organs could buy medical teams vital time and save lives

Keywords

ELAPHARMA, transplant, donor, organ transplant, organ donation, necrosis