. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. is centrifuged to separate the amoebocyte, or blood cell, from the plasma. The freeze-dried product of the cells is used in the iysate test. "This is an in vitro test for fever- producing subtances that are found in drugs or devices," Finn says. At more than $15,000 a quart, Iysate is still more cost-efficient than its predecessor. It replaces the more cumbersome, expensive and less sensitive rabbit test, in which test solution was injected into the bloodstream of a live rabbit. The animal was su
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. is centrifuged to separate the amoebocyte, or blood cell, from the plasma. The freeze-dried product of the cells is used in the iysate test. "This is an in vitro test for fever- producing subtances that are found in drugs or devices," Finn says. At more than $15,000 a quart, Iysate is still more cost-efficient than its predecessor. It replaces the more cumbersome, expensive and less sensitive rabbit test, in which test solution was injected into the bloodstream of a live rabbit. The animal was subsequently monitored for fever, shock or death. Drugs causing even a fever in rabbits were rejected. The Iysate test is a simple one, in which a small amount of the Iysate reagent is mixed with an equal part of the solution to be tested. After about an hour of in- cubation at body temperature, the mixture is examined. A clot indi- cates the presence of bacteria. The case of the tainted swine flu vaccine in 1976 apparently resolved the rabbit-versus-crab debate. The Iysate test, the sole detector of the deadly endotoxins in some of the vaccine, emerged the victor. Following that incident, the FDA provided guidelines for use of Iysate in testing drugs, blood prod- ucts, intravenous fluids and medi- cal devices such as syringes. In addition to these uses, re- search continues into lysate's clinical applications. Lysate's use as a diagnostic tool for bacterial diseases has been limited by its inability to differen- tiate between species of bacterial toxins. This distinction is neces- sary for prescribing antibiotic therapy. Still Iysate has contributed to diagnoses of many diseases, in- cluding spinal meningitis, urinary tract infections and gonorrhea. Carl Shuster, adjunct professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a pioneer of horse- shoe crab research, is building a library about the animal at the school. In evidence of the rapid research strides made since its in
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