Drug companies once tested products for endotoxins using live rabbits. Feverish or dead bunnies revealed contamination. All injectable drugs now pass this scrutiny. In the laboratory of Associates of Cape Cod, live horseshoe crabs delivered each morning by the region's fishermen are lined up in long assembly-line rows. College students hired for the summer puncture the crabs' hearts with large-gauge needles, drawing as much as 30 percent of their rich blue blood drop by drop into small beakers, before sending the crabs back to the sea alive.
Centrifuges separate the amebocyte blood cells from the useless plasma.
Once extracted, the LAL solution is freeze-dried in its final liquid form, which is stable for more than four years. If a gel clot forms after an hour of incubation, it is promptly discarded. Biomedical researchers also employ horseshoe crab blood cells to detect spinal meningitis and gonorrhea, and to study AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. Science owes much to the horseshoe crab, and may yet repay it in kind. Researchers at the University of Delaware, working with local fishermen, hope to develop an artificial horseshoe crab scent to replace living crabs as bait.