--- title: Young organs may not be a fountain of youth for recipients description: New mouse and human heart transplant studies challenge the popular idea that young organs can rejuvenate an aging body. Researchers led by Jesse Poganik at... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/young-organs-may-not-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-recipients-mi7cho5sk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Young organs may not be a fountain of youth for recipients | daily.dev og:description: New mouse and human heart transplant studies challenge the popular idea that young organs can rejuvenate an aging body. Researchers led by Jesse Poganik at... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/young-organs-may-not-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-recipients-mi7cho5sk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mi7CHo5sK.png og:image:alt: Young organs may not be a fountain of youth for recipients og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Young organs may not be a fountain of youth for recipients **[MIT Technology Review](https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary New mouse and human heart transplant studies challenge the popular idea that young organs can rejuvenate an aging body. Researchers led by Jesse Poganik at Brigham and Women's Hospital found that transplanted hearts quickly adopt the biological age of the recipient regardless of donor age—young hearts age up, old hearts age down—while the rest of the body remains largely unaffected. The same pattern held in decades of stored human heart biopsy samples. The findings suggest aging is far more complex than a simple 'young blood' or 'young organ' fix, and that a full reversal of biological aging across all tissues is unlikely. The research may encourage surgeons to use more organs from older donors currently discarded as unsuitable. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does receiving a heart transplant from a younger donor make the organ stay biologically younger? No. Studies on mice and humans found that a transplanted heart adopts the biological age of the recipient regardless of the donor's age—young hearts placed in older bodies aged up, and old hearts placed in younger bodies aged down. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital measured this using molecular 'aging clocks' on mouse hearts and decades of stored human heart biopsy samples. _Anyone tracking breakthroughs in longevity and transplant science can follow developments like this on daily.dev._ ### Why doesn't a young transplanted organ rejuvenate the rest of an older person's body? The rest of the body and blood appeared largely unaffected by the age of a transplanted heart in mouse and human studies, suggesting the recipient's own biology, possibly the immune system, dictates the organ's biological age rather than the reverse. Researchers suspect a single young organ may be diluted by the aged state of the rest of the body, or simply isn't enough on its own to produce a broader rejuvenating effect. _Developers and researchers following longevity biology can track findings like this through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Donated livers can be made biologically younger](https://daily.dev/posts/donated-livers-can-be-made-biologically-younger-xzdoiam7x) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna](https://daily.dev/posts/the-astonishing-embryo-models-of-jacob-hanna-u74syiyyl) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The quest to keep organs alive outside the body](https://daily.dev/posts/the-quest-to-keep-organs-alive-outside-the-body-jukuydz57) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [New study suggests a way to rejuvenate the immune system](https://daily.dev/posts/new-study-suggests-a-way-to-rejuvenate-the-immune-system-rtoz33kfn) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Engineered “mini livers” could be injected as an alternative to transplantation](https://daily.dev/posts/engineered-mini-livers-could-be-injected-as-an-alternative-to-transplantation-nacmxkakx) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#healthcare](https://daily.dev/tags/healthcare), [#biotech](https://daily.dev/tags/biotech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/young-organs-may-not-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-recipients-mi7cho5sk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Young organs may not be a fountain of youth for recipients","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/young-organs-may-not-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-recipients-mi7cho5sk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/young-organs-may-not-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-recipients-mi7cho5sk"},"datePublished":"2026-09-25T09:12:03.796Z","dateModified":"2026-09-25T09:12:29.764Z","description":"New mouse and human heart transplant studies challenge the popular idea that young organs can rejuvenate an aging body. 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Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital measured this using molecular 'aging clocks' on mouse hearts and decades of stored human heart biopsy samples. Anyone tracking breakthroughs in longevity and transplant science can follow developments like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why doesn't a young transplanted organ rejuvenate the rest of an older person's body?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The rest of the body and blood appeared largely unaffected by the age of a transplanted heart in mouse and human studies, suggesting the recipient's own biology, possibly the immune system, dictates the organ's biological age rather than the reverse. Researchers suspect a single young organ may be diluted by the aged state of the rest of the body, or simply isn't enough on its own to produce a broader rejuvenating effect. Developers and researchers following longevity biology can track findings like this through daily.dev."}}]} ```