That the American Horsehoe Crab is an essential part of medical science?
When you get a medical injection, many quality control tests are performed on that substance to make sure that it is free from bacterial contamination. One of these tests (one I actually perform twice a day) is an LAL (limulus amebocyte lysate) test. Where the crab comes into play is through it's blood. It just so happens that the blood of the american horseshoe crab has properties that keep it from getting infected with bacteria.
An amebocyte blood cell present in the crab that clots when it comes into contact with bacterial endotoxins. The clot that surrounds the bacteria suspends it and keeps the crab free from infection. Which is pretty cool when you consider that the crab doesn't have an immune system and is at risk from the many bacteria present in seawater. When humans are infected with these endotoxins it typically causes an injection fever.
So how does this help me? Well...since you asked...in the LAL test I mentioned earlier small samples of injectable substances are tested using the blood cells extracted from the crab. If a clot forms then we know that the sample has been contaminated and it is disposed of.
The crabs are not harmed in the "bleeding" process. They are harvested and then released back into their habitat once the process is complete. LAL researchers only perform a bleeding process on an individual crab once a year even though they can technically be bled up to 3-4 times a year. This is very similar to human blood donation.
Pretty cool, huh? The random things you can learn at work.
On deck for the upcoming week (I swear I'll blog more): new equipment, a yarn car, more shop news and other random useless information. Now where's my beer?
