Metallomics and Metal Effects in Vascular Systems

Abstract

All living things cannot maintain their homeostasis or survive without metals. For example, the homeostasis of metal ions; iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), potassium (K), sodium (Na), and calcium (Ca), is critical for many biological activities. On the other hand, the disorder of metal homeostasis leads to various human disorders including vascular system abnormalities. Metallomics is an analytic technology investigating the entirety of metals and metalloid species within a cell or tissues. Metallomics is an emerging field as well as metalloproteomics, however, the technological advances are very rapid and brings a lot of novel information. Metallomics consists of three main techniques; Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), Inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). These novel techniques are recently applied to the studies of human diseases related to vascular system. Therefore, the significant information contributing to the development of novel therapy will be given us by metallomics in the near future.