Why is horseshoe crab blood blue? Why is horseshoe crab blood blue?

This is because most animals rely on iron-containing hemoglobin to transport oxygen, and iron will appear red when combined with oxygen; The protein of the LAL amoebocyte lysate, which transports oxygen, contains copper, which appears blue when combined with oxygen. In fact, there are also such phenomena in life, such as knives and iron doors rusting and turning red, and swimming pools turning blue because of copper sulfate disinfection.

Horseshoe crab blood is rich in copper, so it can only be used to detect bacteria, not as a medicine. After copper ions enter the liver, it can cause hepatitis and stem cell necrosis, and pregnant women should not take copper ions, otherwise it will affect the baby's brain development. Horseshoe crab amoeba lysate does not have such a powerful function.

On the contrary, because it contains purines and allergic proteins, it is easy to cause allergic pulmonary edema and even death.

The horseshoe crab has copper ions in its blood, and its blood is blue.

The main component of horseshoe crab plasma is hemocyanin, and every 1 ml of hemocyanin contains the heavy metal organic copper (Cu2+) in the horseshoe crab out of the water surface for a long time). According to the ratio of the average body weight of each horseshoe crab (male and female), the plasma and flesh of adult horseshoe crab contain this copper self-content (Cu2+) in the range of 600 1300 mg, respectively.

Function: The extract of the blood of the horseshoe crab - "LAL reagent", can accurately and quickly detect whether the internal tissues of the human body are caused by bacterial infection; In the pharmaceutical and food industries, it can be used to monitor toxin contamination. Scientists also use horseshoe crab blood to study cancer.

However, after the horseshoe crabs were blood-drawn, they were released.

LAL can be widely used for endotoxin detection and quantification of injections, radiopharmaceuticals, vaccines and other biological products, various liquids, food and dairy products, etc.

When mammals breathe, they inhale oxygen into the lungs, exchange gas with the blood in the alveoli, and the oxygen is carried from the blood into the heart, through the arteries to the whole body, for metabolism. The blood of mammals carries oxygen and is carried by the iron in the blood. When iron and oxygen are combined, they are red, so the blood is red.

In the blood of lower animals such as horseshoe crabs, copper is used instead of iron to transport oxygen. Since the copper-containing protein conjugates are blue, this gives the blood a blue color.

Because hemocyanin transports oxygen in the blood of horseshoe crabs, unlike hemoglobin in humans, the main chemical element of hemocyanin is copper ions, so under the influence of hemocyanin, the blood of horseshoe crabs appears blue.

It's the same color as the seawater. It's better to hide haha.