why can’t we synthesize horseshoe crab blood?
In: 5
We can. There’s a really good [episode of Radiolab](https://radiolab.org/episodes/baby-blue-blood-drive) that talks about how people get the crab blood and what’s being done to move us away from it. The link also has a nice list of sources.
Excuse me, what?
I know top level responses should be an answer, and i apologize, but can someone explain why this is even a question like I’m 5?
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We’ve already synthesized the active component in horseshoe crab blood.
For those unaware, horseshoe crab’s are pretty unique in that their blood contains amebocytes which are essentially their white blood cell equivalents. Amebocytes produce a chemical called Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) which forms clots in the presence of gram negative bacteria. So as you can imagine this is pretty useful to hospital scientists who want to test samples or equipment for the presence of bacteria.
Harvesting of their blood has been dropping off since the mid 80’s thanks mostly to a synthetic replacement called Limulus clotting factor C (rFC) which is the active part of LAL. Although harvesting hasn’t completely stopped, mainly because while most have accepted rFC, the US is dragging their feet.
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