Stem cells have played a key role in regenerative medicine since their introduction in 1958. They’ve been irreplaceable in their clinical applications, including treatment of skin burns, reproductive disorders and pulmonary dysfunctions, and have great potential for treating currently untreatable conditions and growing organs for transplants. But my question is whether they will ever have the potential to regrow entire limbs?

I appreciate this is a significant leap from e.g. a liver regrowing after donation for a transplant (which really is just tissue hyperplasia), but what makes us so different from creatures such as the axolotl that are capable of regrowing entire limbs?

I found an article that has provided some insight into why this simply isn’t possible in humans. 🙁