After watching a Discovery Channel (i know) show, about Matt Scott (the first guy in the States to get a hand transplant), it got me interested enough to check him out on the Internet. Upon reaching this site: Clicky I came to the paragraph on “Donor Selection Criteria” where it says:
Hmmm. That got me thinking a creepy thought. What if they were to transplant a 90-year old hand onto a 20-year old patient? What would happen if this person were to live a full life into their 90’s? That would make the hand itself over 160 yrs old. What would come of the hand after so long? What if it were a 90-yr. old woman’s hand?
You’d never put a 90 year old hand on a 20 year old. Parts do wear out, you know.
The link you reference is being a little too simple-minded about age. While there is often no hard-and-fast age cutoff rule, but surgeons have to select donors based on compatibility, and quality does come into play here. A surgeon won’t want to do a transplant if he doesn’t think the organ will function for a reasonable length of time. While you’d probably never receive a 90 year old heart, if you had to choose between the heart of a 40 year old chain smoking couch potato and a physically active 70 year old, which would you pick?
As for swapping in a part from the opposite gender, if it is a good match, why not?
I realize that the surgeons would never select a 90 year-old hand in reality, but as a thought experiment, what would happen to the hand after another 70 years of attachment to a younger body? It’s hard to compare the hand to an actual vital organ, because organ failure would result in death. The hand i imagine would eventually degenerate, but how long it would continue to function (and in what capacity) is a point of curiosity for me. Has a body part ever “lived” for that length of time? Would the tissue itself start to become necrotic?
I’d guess a 90 year old hand probably already has lots of cartilage loss, low bone density, and vascular problems. Attaching that hand to a 20 year old body will help some with circulation, but bone density and cartilage loss are basically permanent. Basically, parts wear out.
As for body parts lasting a long time, I’d say the current limit of knowledge is around 120 years, unless you take passages in the bible describing 900 year old people literally.
I think the chances of a successful transplant would be greatly reduced due to things like circulatory problems, stiffening of tissues (particularly blood vessels), diminished healing potential etc.
Didn’t I read someplace of a lens transplant, where the donor was an old person way back when, and the recipient was youngish. This woulda been early to mid last century. I thought I read that this second woman was still alive, and the lenses were well over 100 years old.