Can one become immortal with the help of organ transplant? This interesting topic was discussed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. This happened during China’s military parade in Beijing this week. Translating what Putin said into Mandarin, the translator told Xi Jinping, “Human organs can be transplanted again and again so that a person keeps getting younger despite aging and perhaps old age can be postponed indefinitely.”
He also said, “It is estimated that in this century, a person can live up to 150 years.” During this conversation, the laughter of both the leaders gave an idea that they were probably in the mood to joke on this topic. But can there really be some truth in it?
Around the world, many lives have been saved through organ transplant. According to NHS Blood and Transplant, more than 100,000 lives have been saved in the last 30 years in Britain alone. Due to continuous advancement in the medical field, transplanted organs are now able to work for a long time. There are some patients whose kidney transplant worked for more than 50 years. How long an organ will work properly depends on the health of the donor and the patient, as well as on how well the organ has been taken care of.
For example, if a patient gets a new kidney from a living donor, it can last for 20 to 25 years. On the other hand, the average lifespan of a kidney received from a dead body is 15 to 20 years. The lifespan of different transplanted organs is also different. According to research published in the Journal of Medical Economics, the liver lasts about 20 years, the heart 15 years and the lungs about 10 years.
How is immortality possible?
Putin and Xi were probably talking about multiple organ transplants. But every surgery comes with a big risk. Going to the operation table every time is like taking a gamble. After getting a new organ, the patient has to take heavy medicines (immunosuppressants) throughout his life so that the body can accept the new organ. These medicines also have side effects – such as high blood pressure or increased risk of infection. Still, sometimes the patient’s body starts rejecting the transplanted organ. That is, the body’s immune system starts attacking that organ considering it a foreign body.”
Readymade organs
Now scientists are working on making organs that the body will not reject. For this, genetically altered pigs are being used as donors. Using a gene editing technique called ‘CRISPR’, they remove some genes from the pig and add some human genes so that the organ to be transplanted matches the human body. For this, pigs of a special breed are bred because their organs are shaped like humans. Although this research is still in its initial stages, a heart and a kidney transplant have already been done using this technique.
The two men who underwent this surgery are considered pioneers of this new field. Both are no longer alive, but they took forward the research going on in the direction of xenotransplantation (i.e. taking organs from a different species).
The other way is to create completely new organs from human cells. Stem cells have the ability to grow into any type of cell or tissue in the body. Although no research has been successful in creating a fully active and transplantable human organ so far, scientists are getting closer to it. In December 2020, British researchers (UCL and Francis Crick Institute) succeeded in creating a human thymus. It is an important part of the immune system. They created it with the help of stem cells and a bioengineered scaffold. When it was transplanted into mice, it was seen working well.
Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London say that they have created a part of the human intestine by taking stem cells from the patient’s tissue. One day this technology can open the way for transplantation so that the problem in the intestine of children can be cured. But this research is for the treatment of diseases, not to increase the lifespan of people to 150 years.
Is reverse aging possible?
Tech tycoon Brian Johnson is spending millions of dollars every year to reverse ageing. He hasn’t had an organ transplant yet, but he has had his 17-year-old son’s plasma infused into his body. He later stopped the process because it didn’t work and agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration became more strict. Dr Julian Matz of King’s College London says that there are many experiments going on beyond organ transplants, such as plasma replacement, but all of these are still in the testing stage. He says, “Whether these methods will actually increase the maximum lifespan of a person is still uncertain, but this is a very interesting area for scientists.”
Lifespan limit
Professor Neil Mabbott is an immunopathology expert at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh. He believes that it may be possible for humans to live up to 125 years. He said, “The oldest person in the world was Jeanne Calment of France, who lived from 1875 to 1997, i.e. 122 years.” He said, “Even though damaged organs can be replaced by organ transplantation, with increasing age our body becomes weak and the ability to withstand physical pressure decreases.”
He further says, “The ability to fight infection decreases, the body becomes fragile and the ability to recover from injury decreases. The pressure of transplant surgery and the effect of immunosuppressant drugs will be very serious for older patients.”
He says that we should not focus on increasing lifespan but on ‘living a healthy life’. Prof. Mabbott said, “Even if life becomes longer, but while struggling with the diseases of old age, one has to go to the hospital again and again and has to get organ transplant done again and again, then this would be a bad idea.”
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