Harvard study finds transplanted hearts can shift biological age
- Transplanted human hearts can shift their biological age to match the age of their new recipients, according to a preprint study published on bioRxiv by researchers at Harvard...
- Global heart transplants are growing more frequent as populations live longer, with procedures increasingly performed on older patients.
- The study remains a preprint published on bioRxiv and has not yet undergone formal peer review by independent scientific experts.
Transplanted human hearts can shift their biological age to match the age of their new recipients, according to a preprint study published on bioRxiv by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The findings show that younger hearts placed in older recipients age more quickly, while older hearts placed in younger recipients become biologically younger. Jesse Poganik, an aging researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, led the research team investigating this phenomenon, which they named Biological Age Assimilation. Chronological age tracks how many years a person has lived, but biological age measures the cumulative cellular damage from aging stored within the body’s tissues. Two individuals of the same chronological age can possess significantly different biological ages.
Transplant Volume and The Critical Shortage of Donor Organs
Global heart transplants are growing more frequent as populations live longer, with procedures increasingly performed on older patients. Despite this expansion in surgical volume, hundreds of patients worldwide still die each year while waiting on transplant lists. This severe shortage forces researchers and clinicians to explore alternative options, including genetically modified pig heart xenotransplants and broader criteria for accepting human donor organs. Medical guidelines typically restrict human heart donors to individuals aged 45 or younger, while older donors face consideration only when they show no signs of severe coronary artery disease.
Evaluating Preliminary Data Ahead of Peer Review
The study remains a preprint published on bioRxiv and has not yet undergone formal peer review by independent scientific experts. The research team’s observation that older hearts can adopt a more youthful biological profile inside younger bodies suggests that future organ allocation guidelines might safely loosen current donor age thresholds if further scientific validation confirms the findings.