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No, not exactly.

What people grow is cartilage at the end of the tailbone (coccyx). A tail is vertebrates ie extended coccyx. Even when a lizard loses its tail it grows back as cartilage no vertebrates it is not the same as it was.

For a human to grow a real tail would have to grow before being born. So they are born with a tail, extended coccyx. Then as they grow up the vertebrates will grow and get bigger, but they cannot make more.

A long time ago doctors used electrical pulses to stimulate an amputated limb to grow back to the joint. It is not done today because there is no point in it. They cannot get it to grow past the joint, ie create bones connected by muscles and tendons. Becides it would put the prosthetic industry out of business!

So you want a tail? I would like one. Just buy one at the store. People have had all kinds of things attached to them or modified, nilon whiskers attached into a base under their nose. pointy ears, pointy teeth and I am sure tails.

But you would never have any control on them.

No transplants? They have transplanted parts from pigs into humans. They have grown human parts in pigs. Pigs DNA is closets to humans and it seems parts can be transplanted sometimes. So it is conceivable to grow a genetically engineered tail on a pig before it is born, with human DNA, and transplant it on a human coccyx.

But putting on the tendons, muscles and nerves is another matter. And it might be rejected. You would have to use yours and learn to use them. With electrical stimulation it is not impossible to be able to learn to control the new muscles to a tail, it is just the base. But no one has done it and Doctors in the US would not attempt it even if they had a human volunteer.

It is clear that with the right stimulation nerves to regrow and even reroute themselves. But it takes time and lots of stimulation. I have no doubt that eventually spinal cord injuries can be regrown.

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12y ago

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