Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) or Tachypleus tridentatus (TAL) is an aqueous extract of blood cells from the horseshoe crab.
And endotoxins are hydrophobic molecules that are part of the lipopolysaccharide complex that forms most of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Parenteral products contaminated with pyrogens can lead to serious consequences like fever, shock, organ failure, or even death.
LAL/TAL reagent could react with bacterial endotoxin and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LAL’s endotoxin binding and clotting ability is what makes it so invaluable to our own pharmaceutical industry. And this is why LAL/TAL reagent could be employed to detect or quantify bacterial endotoxin.
Before the finding that LAL/TAL could be used to do bacterial endotoxins test, rabbits are employed to detect and quantify endotoxins in pharmaceutical products. Compared with RPT, BET with LAL/TAL reagent is rapid and efficient, and it is the popular way to do dynamic monitoring of endotoxin concentration in pharmaceutical industry, and so on.