Calcium and cell death.

When calcium homeostasis fails, as occurs in anoxia and other energy-deprived states, cell viability is threatened. This is probably because such states are accompanied either by an uncontrolled influx of calcium (Ca) through the plasma membrane, or by massive release of Ca from intracellular binding/sequestration sites. The review herein provides a brief overview of our current state of knowledge on Ca-related cell damage. Various aspects of the latter as well as of cellular Ca homeostasis are discussed, such as loss of Ca homeostasis and cell death, Ca-unrelated cell damage, Ca and neuronal vulnerability to ischemia, the neurotoxicity of excitatory amino acids, Ca and excitotoxic cell death in vitro, routes of entry of Ca, spreading depression and ionic changes, and the importance of Ca in the pathogenesis of ischemic neuronal damage.