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Updated: May 24, 2026

Atomic Absorbance Spectroscopy to Measure Intracellular Zinc Pools in Mammalian Cells
Published on: May 16, 2019
Cellular transport and homeostasis of essential and nonessential metals
Ebany J Martinez-Finley1, Sudipta Chakraborty, Stephanie J B Fretham
1Department of Pediatrics, and the Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Abstract:
Metals can have a number of detrimental or beneficial effects in the cell, but first they must get in. Organisms have evolved transport mechanisms to get metals that are required, or essential into the cell. Nonessential metals often enter the cell through use of the machinery provided for essential metals. Much work has been done to advance our understanding of how these metals are transported across plasma and organelle membranes. This review provides an overview of essential and nonessential metal transport and homeostatic processes.
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