Effects of Donor-Recipient Age Difference in Renal Transplantation, an Investigation on Renal Function and Fluid Proteome

INTRODUCTION: Our previous study revealed that a young internal environment ameliorated kidney aging by virtue of an animal model of heterochronic parabiosis and a model of heterochronic renal transplantation. In this research, we used proteome to investigate the effects of donor-recipient age difference in clinical renal transplantation. METHODS: This study included 10 pairs of renal transplantation donors and recipients with an age difference of greater than 20 years to their corresponding recipients/donors. All recipients have received transplantation more than 3 years ago. Renal function and the serum/urine proteomes of the donors and recipients were analyzed. RESULTS: The renal function was similar between the young recipients and the old donors. In contrast, the renal function of the young donors was significantly superior to that of the old recipients. Furthermore, 497 and 975 proteins were identified in the serum and urine proteomes, respectively. The content of SLC3A2 in the blood was found to be related to aging, while the contents of SERPINA1 and SERPINA3 in the urine were related to immune functions after renal transplantation. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that, in the human body, a younger internal environment could ameliorate kidney aging and provided not only clinical evidence for increasing the age limit of kidney transplant donors but also new information for kidney aging research.