Advances in specific regulation of sodium-calcium exchanger and its related clinical disease

Sodium-calcium exchangers are widely expressed in animal cell membrane, which can be divided into two groups:the Na⁺/Ca²⁺exchangers encoded by SLC8 gene family (NCX) and the K⁺dependent Na⁺/Ca²⁺exchangers encoded by SLC24 gene family (NCKX). A mitochondrial Na⁺/Ca²⁺exchanger has recently been identified as NCLX protein, which is a gene product of SLC8B1, and it is now included in NCX family. NCLX plays an important role in mitochondrial calcium homeostasis. According to current studies, NCX is closely related with cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes; while NCKX participates in biological process like vision, olfaction, skin pigmentation and brain function. Researches focused on sodium-calcium exchanger can provide new ideas and new directions in clinic diseases.