Young Plasma Infusion
Young donor plasma infusion (transfusion of plasma from young adult donors)
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
Also known as: Young plasma, yFFP, Young fresh frozen plasma, Young blood transfusion, Parabiosis-inspired plasma therapy
Plasma from donors aged 18 to 30 infused into older people. The one randomised trial enrolled 18 patients with Alzheimer disease and was powered for safety, not effect. FDA published a consumer warning about clinics selling it in February 2019.
Overview
The idea comes from heterochronic parabiosis, an experiment in which the circulatory systems of a young and an old mouse are joined. A 2011 Nature paper showed that blood-borne factors in an old systemic environment suppress neurogenesis and impair learning and memory in young mice, and that the reverse direction produces the opposite effect. The clinical question that follows is whether infusing young human plasma does anything for an old human.
One randomised trial has tested it. The PLASMA study at Stanford enrolled 18 patients with probable mild to moderate Alzheimer disease. Nine were randomised under a double-blind crossover protocol to four once-weekly infusions of one unit, about 250 mL, of young fresh frozen plasma from male donors aged 18 to 30, or 250 mL of saline, then crossed over after a six-week washout. After a protocol amendment, a further nine received four weekly plasma infusions open-label. The primary outcomes were safety, tolerability and feasibility. There were no related serious adverse events. One patient stopped because of urticaria and one because of an unrelated stroke. The most common adverse events on plasma were hypertension, sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, headache and dizziness, each in two or three of 18 patients. The trial was NIH funded and reported in JAMA Neurology in 2019. It was not designed to measure whether plasma helps, and it did not.
The commercial story is separate from the trial record and is documented by the regulator. On 19 February 2019 FDA published a consumer statement, Important Information about Young Donor Plasma Infusions for Profit, advising the public to be cautious about establishments in several states offering young donor plasma at a cost of up to thousands of dollars per infusion for conditions ranging from normal ageing to dementia, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. FDA stated there is no proven clinical benefit for those uses, that dosing is not guided by adequate and well controlled trials, and that plasma infusion carries infectious, allergic, respiratory and cardiovascular risks including anaphylaxis, transfusion-related acute lung injury and circulatory overload.
Mechanism of action
Not established in humans. In mice, plasma from young animals carries factors including TIMP2, platelet factor 4, Gpld1 and clusterin that improve hippocampal plasticity, neurogenesis and cognition, while old plasma carries factors including CCL11 and beta-2 microglobulin that impair them. No human study has identified which component of young plasma, if any, does anything, and the PLASMA trial did not attempt to. Plasma is a complex biological mixture containing clotting factors, antibodies and hundreds of proteins, which is a reason the intervention is difficult to interpret even when it is given.
Human evidence
One small randomised trial exists and it was powered for safety, not for effect. Eighteen people with Alzheimer disease received young plasma at Stanford; the treatment was tolerated and the study was never designed to show benefit. No adequately powered efficacy trial of young plasma for ageing has been published.
- PLASMA (NCT02256306, JAMA Neurology 2019): 18 patients with probable mild to moderate Alzheimer disease, Mini-Mental State Examination 12 to 24, aged 50 to 90. Nine in a double-blind crossover of four weekly units of young fresh frozen plasma versus saline with a six-week washout; nine open-label after a protocol amendment. NIH funded, single centre.
- Safety result: no related serious adverse events. Two discontinuations, one for urticaria and one for an unrelated stroke. Adverse events did not differ significantly between plasma and placebo groups and were mild to moderate. Most common on plasma were hypertension, sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia and headache, each in 3 of 18, and dizziness in 2 of 18.
- The authors state the limitations themselves: small sample size, short duration and a change in study design mid-trial. The conclusion offered is that the treatment was safe, tolerated and feasible, and that larger double-blind placebo-controlled trials are warranted.
- NCT02460731, University of California San Francisco: a phase 1 single-group study of young plasma transfusion in 6 people with progressive supranuclear palsy, started May 2015, listed as completed. No results are posted and no publication of this trial could be located in PubMed.
- NCT03353597, the registered commercial young-plasma study: phase 1/2, single group, no control, no masking, estimated enrolment 2,120, status unknown since 2018, no results posted.
What this does not tell you: Eighteen people is enough to detect a common infusion reaction and nothing else. The PLASMA trial measured no cognitive endpoint it was powered for, ran for four weeks of dosing, and enrolled only people who already had Alzheimer disease, so it says nothing about healthy older adults. There is no published human evidence that young plasma changes cognition, biological age, or any ageing outcome, and no trial has been designed to answer that question at an adequate size.
Reading the research record
This is a case where a commercial industry ran far ahead of a trial record that consists of one 18-person safety study. The mouse parabiosis literature is genuinely striking and it generated real scientific programmes, several of which appear elsewhere in this batch as individual factors: TIMP2, platelet factor 4, Gpld1 and clusterin on the young side, CCL11 and beta-2 microglobulin on the old side. Those programmes exist precisely because identifying a single factor is what would make an actual drug. Whole young plasma is not a drug; it is a biological mixture that varies by donor and cannot be dosed, characterised or patented.
The FDA statement of 19 February 2019 is worth reading in full rather than quoting in summary. It does not say young plasma is harmful in itself. It says there is no proven clinical benefit for the marketed uses, that the dosing being used is not guided by controlled trials, and that plasma infusion carries known risks that are acceptable when there is an indication and not when there is not. The risks it names are the standard transfusion risks: residual infectious risk despite screening, anaphylaxis, transfusion-related acute lung injury, and circulatory overload in people with pre-existing heart disease. That is the strongest claim the primary record supports, and this site will not go beyond it.
The evidence, charted
Fig. 1 · evidence composition
3of 6 citations (50%) are in people
Counted from the citation list on this page. The Human count is the same number shown in the badge at the top. Both understate any literature larger than the sources we cite.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Evidence spans 5 distinct years, 2011 to 2022, counted from the citation list on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Approved
AU
Approved
CA
Not approved
Approved in 2 of 4, prescription route in 0, not approved in 2. A jurisdiction's classification is a regulatory fact, not a verdict on the science; see Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Key studies & citations
- Human2019
Safety, Tolerability, and Feasibility of Young Plasma Infusion in the Plasma for Alzheimer Symptom Amelioration Study: A Randomized Clinical Trial
18 patients with probable mild to moderate Alzheimer disease at Stanford, mean age 74.2 years, 12 women. Nine randomised in a double-blind crossover to four weekly infusions of one unit of young fresh frozen plasma from male donors aged 18 to 30 or 250 mL saline; nine received open-label plasma after an amendment. Primary outcomes were safety, tolerability and feasibility. No related serious adverse events. One withdrawal for urticaria, one for an unrelated stroke. Visit adherence 86 percent. NIH funded.
JAMA Neurology - Review2022
Efficacy and safety of blood derivatives therapy in Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Systematic review and meta-analysis pooling the blood-derivative interventions tested in Alzheimer disease, which is the honest way to read a field where the individual trials are small.
Systematic Reviews - Review2019
Important Information about Young Donor Plasma Infusions for Profit
Consumer statement dated 19 February 2019. FDA advises caution about establishments in several states offering young donor plasma at up to thousands of dollars per infusion for ageing, memory loss, dementia, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder, states there is no proven clinical benefit for these uses, and names the risks: residual infectious risk, anaphylaxis, transfusion-related acute lung injury and circulatory overload.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Human2014
The PLasma for Alzheimer SymptoM Amelioration (PLASMA) Study
Registry record for the Stanford trial. Sponsor Stanford University, phase not applicable, completed, 18 participants enrolled, start September 2014.
ClinicalTrials.gov - Human2018
Reversing Epigenetic and Other Markers of Senescence by Transfusing Young Plasma To Older Human Subjects
The registry record behind the best known commercial young-plasma operation. Phase 1/2, single group, no masking, no control arm, estimated enrolment 2,120, start 15 May 2018, status listed as unknown, no results posted. A single-arm study with no comparator and no posted results cannot demonstrate anything about ageing.
ClinicalTrials.gov - Animal2011
The ageing systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function
Mouse. Using heterochronic parabiosis, blood-borne factors were shown to inhibit or promote adult neurogenesis in an age-dependent way. Exposing a young mouse to an old systemic environment or to plasma from old mice decreased synaptic plasticity and impaired contextual fear conditioning and spatial learning. This is the animal experiment the entire young-plasma industry is built on.
Nature
What users report
Self-reported experiences, not evidence. Nothing below was measured under controlled conditions, and reports like these cannot separate a real effect from placebo, from the training or diet change that accompanied it, or from what the product actually contained. They are here because knowing what people describe, including what goes wrong, is worth reading alongside the studies.
- FDA's February 2019 statement describes establishments in several different states offering young donor plasma infusions at a cost of up to thousands of dollars per infusion. That price range is the regulator's own characterisation, not a forum estimate.
- The conditions FDA names as being marketed for are normal ageing, memory loss, dementia, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. No approved indication exists for any of them.
- The best-known commercial operation registered its activity on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03353597, a single-arm phase 1/2 with no control group, no masking, an estimated enrolment of 2,120 and a status that has been listed as unknown since 2018. No results have ever been posted. Registration on ClinicalTrials.gov is not FDA approval and does not indicate that a study is scientifically adequate.
- FDA's stated concern about dosing is specific: the infusions being sold can involve large administered volumes and the dosing is not guided by evidence from adequate and well controlled trials.
- The risks FDA names for plasma infusion generally, which apply whatever the indication: residual infectious risk despite donor screening, serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis with hives and airway obstruction, transfusion-related acute lung injury, and circulatory overload causing swelling and breathing difficulty, particularly in people with pre-existing heart disease.
Sources: The FDA consumer statement of 19 February 2019, Important Information about Young Donor Plasma Infusions for Profit, retrieved in full from fda.gov, and the ClinicalTrials.gov registry record NCT03353597 retrieved live from the ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API. No forum posts, clinic websites or press accounts are used here, and no individual clinic or patient report is quoted.
Frequently asked questions
Does young plasma reverse ageing in humans?
Nobody knows, because no adequately powered trial has asked. The only randomised trial enrolled 18 people with Alzheimer disease, was powered for safety and feasibility rather than effect, and found the infusions tolerable. FDA stated in February 2019 that there is no proven clinical benefit for the uses this is marketed for.
Is young plasma infusion safe?
Plasma transfusion is a routine procedure with known risks, and those risks do not disappear because the indication is ageing. FDA names residual infectious risk despite screening, anaphylaxis, transfusion-related acute lung injury, and circulatory overload in people with heart disease. In the 18-person Stanford trial there were no related serious adverse events, one withdrawal for hives and one for an unrelated stroke. Eighteen people is not enough to characterise safety.
What did the FDA actually say in 2019?
On 19 February 2019 FDA published a consumer statement advising caution about establishments in several states selling young donor plasma at up to thousands of dollars per infusion for ageing, memory loss and a list of neurological and cardiac conditions. It said there is no proven clinical benefit for those uses, that the dosing is not guided by controlled trials, and it listed the transfusion risks involved. It did not ban the procedure.
Why do the mouse results look so much stronger?
Because in mice the experiment is heterochronic parabiosis, which joins two circulatory systems continuously, and because mouse studies measure neurogenesis and memory tasks directly in tissue. Those results drove the search for individual factors, which is where the serious science is now. Whole young plasma is a mixture that cannot be dosed or characterised, which is one reason no sponsor has run the large trial that would settle the question.