Its blood vessels fill with 52 times the usual level of triglycerides, substances found in fats and oils. Such levels would clog mammal hearts with fat, but the pythons seem immune.

She extracted plasma from the blood of pythons that had just been fed, and placed it on rat heart cells. They grew in size. Could a protein be responsible?

Techniques for blood collection from the rat include puncture of the heart, retro-orbital plexus, jugular vein, saphenous vein, tail blood vessels, carotid artery, abdominal aorta, and vena cava.

As Amit Choudhary opened the package of snake blood, the first thing he noticed was its color. It looked like yogurt. The blood plasma, harvested from a Burmese python shortly after feeding, was so ...