Currently in the United States, there are over 11,000 people waiting for liver transplants. Unfortunately, the country does not have enough supply to meet demand. This new discovery of just how long livers can stay functioning, however, might help with this problem. Scientists have recently discovered that the human liver can stay alive for over 100 years and across multiple donors and recipients.
Scientists Discover That Livers Can Stay Alive For 100 Years Or More
A research team from the University of Texas (UT) and TransMedics, Massachusetts has recently completed a study on the longevity of the human liver. As it turns out, our livers are capable of living much, much longer than the average human that houses them. Scientists have found that livers are capable of “living” and functioning for 100 years or more – even if they’ve been transplanted several times into different people.
“We looked at pre-transplant survival–essentially, the donor’s age–as well as how long the liver went on to survive in the recipient,” said lead study author Yash Kadakia, a medical student at UT Southwestern Medical School. “We stratified out these remarkable livers with over 100-year survival and identified donor factors, recipient factors, and transplant factors involved in creating this unique combination where the liver was able to live to 100 years.” (1)
To complete this study, the researchers looked at 253,406 livers that were transplanted between 1990 and 2022. Of those livers, 25 of them met the criteria for having “lived” for at least 100 years. What they discovered about these livers was very interesting: They primarily came from older donors. The average age of the donors of the livers that lived the longest was 84.7 years, whereas that of the livers that did not pass 100 years was just 38.5 years. The older donors also had a lower instance of diabetes and fewer donor infections. The livers also had lower levels of an enzyme that doctors know can cause problems with liver transplants.
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Hope For Those In Need Of Liver Transplants
For the more than 11,000 people on the waiting list for a liver transplant, this is good news. Traditionally, older livers haven’t necessarily been considered proper for donation and transplant. Naturally, the fear was that an older liver wouldn’t last as long and give recipients more problems down the road. This new information, however, shows that perhaps older livers can and should be considered for transplants. If this was the case, a lot more people on the waiting list could receive livers much sooner. This could be life-saving.
The researchers found that none of the older livers were lost to primary nonfunction or vascular or biliary complications, meaning that none of these livers just stopped working. One of the next biggest reservations is that these older organs will have higher rejection rates in their recipients. On the contrary, however, they found no significant difference in rejection rates of the younger versus older livers.
“Livers are incredibly resilient organs,” said Mr. Kadakia. “We’re using older donors, we have better surgical techniques, we have advances in immunosuppression, and we have better matching of donor and recipient factors. All these things allow us to have better outcomes.” (2)
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How Is This Possible?
The liver is a highly regenerative organ. Its cells regenerate at a very rapid rate. For this reason, despite the fact that you may be, let’s say, 40 years old, your liver isn’t. Yes, it has existed in your body that whole time. But its cells have been regenerating so that, regardless of how old you are, your liver is truthfully never older than three years old.
Of course, this is still brand-new research. It doesn’t necessarily mean that doctors will just simply start using older donors’ livers immediately. The researchers all agree that this is just the start of looking into the potential of older livers and donations.
“If we can sort out what is special amongst these donors, we could potentially get more available livers to be transplanted and have good outcomes.” said study coauthor Christine S. Hwang, MD, FACS, associate professor of surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center. (3)
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Sources
- “Centurion Livers: Making It to 100 with A Transplant.” FACS. October 16, 2022.
- “Livers have the potential to function for more than 100 years.” Eurekalert. October 16, 2022.
- “Livers Can Outlive Their Humans With The Potential To Function For 100 Years.” IFL Science. Rachael Funnell. October 17, 2022.
