Baghdad:First paragraph of the news story.

According to Iraqi News Agency, a new study posted on bioRxiv indicates that transplanted hearts might adapt to the age of their new bodies, potentially altering their biological age to match that of the recipient rather than the donor. This finding could challenge the current preference for younger donor hearts, as it suggests that older hearts could become biologically ‘younger’ when transplanted into younger recipients.

Jesse Poganik, a Harvard Medical School instructor and co-author of the study, conducted research involving the transplantation of hearts between young, middle-aged, and old mice, while keeping each recipient’s native heart intact. The study measured DNA methylation and used epigenetic clocks to estimate the biological age of the transplanted hearts.

The results showed that young hearts transplanted into older mice appeared to age biologically, whereas older hearts in younger mice seemed to rejuvenate. These findings indicate that the systemic environment of the recipient can influence the biological age of transplanted organs.

Commenting on the study, Peter Scriven, co-founder and clinical director at Longtivity, an aging clinic in England, who was not involved in the research, noted that organs appear to be responsive to their environment. This raises questions about the extent to which aging can be modified within transplanted organs.