Question: is it possible to regenerate human limbs?

  1. I’d say with stem cell technology this would be possible. As weird as this might sound, scientists have grown ears on the backs of mice and are working on producing skin to transplant onto burn victims. I’m sure there are other examples of this kind of marvellous medical research.

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  2. We haven’t been able to do that yet, but from what I understand the difficulties are technical — there is no reason why we can’t grow limbs in a lab, say. Whether it would work for any particular person is a difficult question, and has a lot to do with their individual genetic makeup, their immune system, and so on.
    Unfortunately, people can’t regenerate their own limbs like some other animals can. But that would be a neat superpower to have!

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  3. Humans can regrow skin (think of when you graze a knee) and also the very tips of our fingers and toes, but we can’t regrow a whole finger or toe or leg or arm the way salamanders can. A recent experiment using mice showed that stem cell treatment using stem cells from toe nails allowed the mice to regrow bones, tissue and nails of toes, but only if the initial removal of the toe wasn’t past a certain point.

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