Medical Uses
Horseshoe crabs are valuable as a species to the medical research community, and in medical testing. The above-mentioned clotting reaction of the animal's blood is used in the widely used Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test to detect bacterial endotoxins in pharmaceuticals and to test for several bacterial diseases.
Enzymes from horseshoe crab blood are used by astronauts in the International Space Station to test surfaces for unwanted bacteria and fungi.
A protein from horseshoe crab blood is also under investigation as a novel antibiotic.
LAL is obtained from the animals' blood. Horseshoe crabs are returned to the ocean after bleeding, although some 3% die during the process. Studies show that blood volume returns to normal in about a week, though blood cell count can take two to three months to fully rebound.
Read more about this topic: Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“Often, we expect too much [from a nanny]. We want someone like ourselves—bright, witty, responsible, loving, imaginative, patient, well-mannered, and cheerful. Also, we want her to be smart, but not so smart that she’s going to get bored in two months and leave us to go to medical school.”
—Louise Lague (20th century)
“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)