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Article: Bless the vampires, leeches, and other bloodsuckers! (medical research on usage of bat plasminogen activator in cardiovascular drug development)
- Article from:
- Medical Update
- Article date:
- October 1, 1991
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Vlad the Impaler was his name, and impaling criminals was his game in old Transylvania. Only after being memorialized in fiction as Count Dracula did he become the vampire that has given the poor bat bad press ever since. That is now changing, however, as vampire bats, leeches, and other real bloodsuckers are beginning to find themselves in the limelight of modem medicine.
Some time ago, we reported on medical science's resurging interest in leeches and their ability to remove, painlessly and effectively, blood deposits just under the skin, produced by surgical and other trauma. Now, scientists are looking at the mechanism that permits these and similar creatures ...