History of vasospasm research in Japan: Commemoration of professor tomio ohta

Abstract

In the 1960s Professor Setsuro Ebashi, a physiologist from the University of Tokyo, discovered calcium ion plays a pivotal role in muscle contraction for the first time. However, he was confounded by icy neglect of the society of physiologists. The International Conference on Physiology was held in Boston in 1962, and Dr. Ebashi and his coworker Dr. Anne Mary Weber gave a talk about calcium signal which is a key mechanism for regulating muscle contraction. Every single attendant stood against their theory and even laughed at them.