If a deceased child’s organ (such as a kidney) is transplanted to an adult does it grow to adult size?

Living organs still function in all of the ways that a living organ functions. As long as the child is producing Human Growth Hormone, all of their organs, including transplanted ones, will grow.

Assuming the deceased child’s organ is still functioning, when it is transplanted to an adult it will grow to adult size as long as functional Growth Hormone (GH also known as Somatotropic Hormone or STH) is produced in the adult.

Now, for an organ transplant to be successful so many precautions are taken.

• The donor and the recipient must contain exact Histocompatibility proteins or MHC proteins. Otherwise the body will reject the transplanted organ.
• And Immunosuppressant drugs are used to avoid organ rejection.

Credit: Abhinaba Chakraborty