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Atlantic horseshoe crab
Limulus polyphemus
También llamadaHorseshoe crab · Limulus
An ancient marine arthropod whose blue blood clots on contact with bacterial endotoxin. Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL), made from that blood, has been the standard test since the 1970s for making sure vaccines, injectable drugs and implants are free of fever-causing endotoxins. It is not a treatment, and its harvest kills a share of the crabs bled; a synthetic alternative now exists.
Ficha completa de historia natural →Para qué se usa
- FiebreSólida
LAL detects bacterial endotoxins, which cause fever and shock if injected, so every batch of injectable drugs, vaccines and implanted devices is tested with it or an approved alternative; it replaced the slower rabbit pyrogen test after FDA approval in 1977. This protects patients indirectly; no one takes horseshoe crab blood as medicine.1,2
Seguridad
Toxicidad
Not taken as a medicine. Horseshoe crabs are not dangerous to handle; the tail is used for righting, not stinging.
En las tradiciones curativas
- Modern pharmacology
Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL); recombinant Factor C (rFC)
Endotoxin testing of pharmaceuticals and devices. rFC, made in insect cells without crabs, has been available since 2003, entered the European Pharmacopoeia in 2016 and gained its own USP chapter (<86>) in 2025.
Compuestos activos
- Factor C
- serine protease that triggers the clotting cascade on binding endotoxin; recombinant version replaces LAL
- coagulogen
- clotting protein that forms the gel
- haemocyanin
- copper-based oxygen carrier that makes the blood blue
Historia
In 1956 Frederik Bang at Woods Hole found that bacteria made horseshoe crab blood clot; with Jack Levin he traced the reaction to endotoxin and the amebocyte cells. LAL was approved by the FDA in 1977; the crabs are caught, bled at licensed facilities and released.
Fuentes
- 1.Wikipedia: Limulus amebocyte lysate (discovery, approval, rFC, mortality, USP chapters)
- 2.Iwanaga S. Biochemical principle of Limulus test for detecting bacterial endotoxins. Proc Jpn Acad Ser B 2007
- 3.Maloney T et al. Saving the horseshoe crab: a synthetic alternative to horseshoe crab blood for endotoxin detection. PLoS Biol 2018
- 4.Leschen AS, Correia SJ. Mortality in female horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) from biomedical bleeding and handling. Mar Freshw Behav Physiol 2010
- 5.Smith DR et al. Limulus polyphemus. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016
- 6.Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Frederik Bang (Heroes of Public Health)
Referencia, no receta. Nada de esto es consejo médico. Las hierbas pueden interactuar con medicamentos y ser peligrosas en el embarazo; informa a tu médico o farmacéutico de todo lo que tomes.