title: Historical review: mitochondria and calcium: ups and downs of an unusual relationship.
abstract: The discovery of Ca(2+) transport by mitochondria is conventionally credited to De Luca and Engstrom, and Vasington and Murphy, who showed in 1961-1962 that Ca(2+) was taken up by isolated mitochondria using respiratory or ATP energy. However, contributions had already appeared in the 1950s showing - albeit indirectly - that isolated mitochondria bound Ca(2+) actively. Somehow, however, these contributions failed to attract the attention that they undoubtedly deserved. The 1961-1962 findings started the ball rolling, initiating a topic that was to have a peculiar oscillatory history. It went from peaks of great enthusiasm to valleys of essential neglect, and from there to a final (hopefully permanent) robust revival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Padova, Viale G. Colombo 3, 35121 Padova, Italy. Ernesto.Carafoli@unipd.it
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carafoli
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000266:history / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002118:Calcium / Q000266:history* / Q000378:metabolism; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010085:Oxidative Phosphorylation; D012964:Sodium / Q000266:history / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D012964:Sodium; D002118:Calcium