Frederickson Christopher J, Koh Jae-Young, Bush Ashley I
NeuroBio Tex, Inc., 101 Christopher Columbus Blvd, Galveston, Texas 77550, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005 Jun;6(6):449-62. doi: 10.1038/nrn1671.
The use of zinc in medicinal skin cream was mentioned in Egyptian papyri from 2000 BC (for example, the Smith Papyrus), and zinc has apparently been used fairly steadily throughout Roman and modern times (for example, as the American lotion named for its zinc ore, 'Calamine'). It is, therefore, somewhat ironic that zinc is a relatively late addition to the pantheon of signal ions in biology and medicine. However, the number of biological functions, health implications and pharmacological targets that are emerging for zinc indicate that it might turn out to be 'the calcium of the twenty-first century'.
公元前2000年的埃及纸莎草纸（例如《史密斯纸莎草纸文稿》）中就提到了在药用护肤霜中使用锌，而且锌显然在罗马时期和现代都一直被稳定使用（例如，以其锌矿石命名的美国洗剂“炉甘石”）。因此，颇具讽刺意味的是，锌在生物学和医学的信号离子体系中是加入得相对较晚的。然而，锌所展现出的生物学功能、对健康的影响以及药理学靶点的数量表明，它可能会成为“21世纪的钙”。
