Vanadium distributes widely in litoshere, hydropere and biosphere. In mammalian tissues, vanadium is present at concentrations of 10 μ M or less, and this metal ion is proposed to be an essential trace element. Numerous physiological roles of vanadium have been reported at in vitro andin vivo levels. Since the finding that vanadate (+5 oxidation state of this metal) is a potent inhibitor of the sodium pump (Na+, K+-ATPase), the effects of vanadium have been explained in terms of its biochemistry. In this review the short history of the investigations, the chemistry, the metabolism, the physiological roles and the pharmacological effects of vanadium along with the vanadium-containing proteins and natural products are described.
