Disruption of Cardiac $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ Exchanger Gene in Mice

Na$^{＋}$-Ca$^{2＋}$ Exchanger is known to playa critical role in the regulation of intracellular $Ca^{2＋}$ in many tissues and cells. In heart, the Na$^{＋}$-Ca$^{2＋}$ exchange is the principal $Ca^{2＋}$ extrusion mechanism and affects cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. To understand the functional role of cardiac Na$^{＋}$ -Ca$^{2＋}$ exchanger (NCXl) in vivo, we tried to ablate the cardiac Na$^{2+}$-Ca$^{2+}$ exchanger gene locus by the use of the gene targeting technologies.(omitted)ted)