• Question: Could stem cells be used (as well as for obvious medical reasons) for growing completely new body parts like wings or extra arms? :)

    Asked by commando1 to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 18 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi commando1 – a lot of people want to know this!! The answer is certainly no at the moment. The problem with limbs is that they have lots of different tissues in them, and a very complex structure, and we don’t have the technology at the moment to grow things that complicated.
      If it is possible in the future we might not be able to grow extra limbs because a) if we only have human cells we can’t make anything that requires non-human DNA – so I’m not sure we could make a wing for example unless we could get a gene for feathers into the cells and b)extra limbs need ‘plumbing in’ – so if you don’t have the bone structure or the nerves or blood vessels to supply that limb then we wont be able to attach it anywhere.
      It would be cool though – flying would be great!

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Commando1,
      What a great idea, I’d love to be able to fly!!!
      In reality, at the moment, we can’t actually grow a whole new limb just yet, but there is hope that this will be possible in the future. At the moment, we are using stem cells to repair bones, or nerves, but as limbs are made up of lots of different tissues and nerves and circulatory systems, it’s going to be really complicated to get everything to work as it should so we probable have a while to go before we can do the whole arm!

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi commando, that is an awesome question. There are people who grow extra bits and pieces – fingers, part of hands, toes, even nipples. In fact, geneticists can mutate insects to make them grow extra wing and legs! So your question is not as crazy as some may think! To be able to do this, I think we’d need to understand a whole lot more about how animals develop from an embryo to a fully formed adult – this is called embryology and developmental biology. It’s fascinating. Think how a couple of cells can turn into a whole person like you who can reason and ask these kinds of questions! We might also need a big frame on which we can put the stem cells and then tell them to turn into different types of cells before the wings or extra arms can become a reality!

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