Do donated organs age according to the donor´s age or do they adapt to the age of the new body?
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OOh I can answer this!
Source – I (43) received a kidney from my mum (71) last year!
(Trigger warning, this talks about children and babies dying so feel free to click away).
I’m no doctor or scientist but I’ve been a patient of renal medicine for 20 years and I’m inquisitive, so here we go
The transplanted kidney is the age that it is, so part of me is now 72 years old, even though I’m 43. The kidney will respond to the demands of the body it is in, so this is interesting when donated organs come from Children. Kidneys do generally wear out over time but this isn’t especially accelerated in transplant recipients. But they DO change, see below.
I had my transplant at [Leeds](https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/a-z-of-services/kidney-transplantation/) which is one of the best units. They have done a load of work transplanting from children to adults. They did some experimentation with transplanting organs from stillborn babies but found that it doesn’t really work very well if the deceased donor is less than six months old, so that is now the limit.
Fun fact! If you as an adult receive a transplant from a small child, you will most likely receive both kidneys so they can provide enough capacity. They are so so tiny!
Fun Fact! if you as an adult receive a child kidney, it will grow very very fast to accommodate it’s new workload
Fun Fact! They don’t take your old kidneys out unless they are actively harming you – I’ve got three now!
Fun Fact! Related to the above, some people have four of five kidneys because of this, as transplants do wear out
Fun Fact! Even though your kidneys are half way up your back, under your ribs, the new one goes in your belly. Mine is next to my appendix and sticks out a bit (you can grab hold of it). They do this as the plumbing is much easier, they tap it in to the vein and artery that run down your leg, and put a tube in to your bladder.
Fun Fact! In the 24 hours after my transplant I passed 14 LITRES of urine as the new kidney went all WFT dude and went in to overdrive. I was on two drips (one in each arm) and drinking as much as I physically could to keep up
Fun Fact! one transplanted kidney will often up it’s game to do it’s job. My one is mostly at 60% and the guy who was in the bed next to me is at 80% with just one! (mine is misbehaving at the moment after I had Covid but that’s another story)
Feel free to subscribe if you want any more fun kidney transplant facts!
Just FYI: donated organs last 10 to 20 years if you’re lucky. Depends on the organ. Doesn’t matter what the age of the donor is/was–the limiting factor is the attack by the immune system by the recipient, and wear and tear. So it’s not like an organ donated by a 10 year old will last 80 years while an organ donated by an 80 year old will last 10 years based on the donor’s age. Either organ will last 10 to 20 years.
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