Preserving organs for transplantation

From transplant surgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital come findings about how to rejuvenate older organs from cadavers, though this is based on studies in mice.  “Here, we demonstrate in clinical and experimental models that DC 9 (dendritic cells) activation in aging is caused by increased systemic levels of cell-free mt-DNA communicated through TRL9 (Toll-like receptor 9), which promotes Th1/Th17 (T helper cells) immunogenicity following ischemia reperfusion injury. Moreover, we identify senescent cells as a key source of cf-mt-DNA. Finally, we show that treatment with the senolytics, Dasatinib plus Quercetin (D + Q), which selectively eliminate senescent cells29, reduces senescent cell burden, cf-mt-DNA levels, alleviates age-associated inflammation, and specifically prolongs survival of cardiac allografts from old mice.”   MORE

Image Credit:  healthxchange.sg