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Study Links Liver Transplantation to Accelerated Cellular Aging
Diminished Immune Response Due to Impaired T-Cell Function

Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that liver transplant recipients develop premature immune senescence, the normal process by which the immune system ages and becomes less effective.

The University of Cambridge research team investigated whether the chronic immune stress of liver disease and organ transplantation accelerates aging of the immune system, which in turn contributes to excess morbidity and mortality in established liver graft recipients. Study leader Dr. Graeme Alexander explains, “There is a marked increase in the prevalence of cardiac disease, malignancy, cerebrovascular disease and infections in patients with established liver grafts, affecting a majority of cases eventually and which in the past have been attributed to agents used to suppress immune responses.  However, an alternative (and not exclusive) hypothesis is that liver transplant recipients develop premature immune senescence which is also associated with these same pathologies, perhaps consequent to chronic alloantigenic stimulation.”