On April 1993, the isolation of a cDNA encoding a thiazide-sensitive, electroneutral sodium-chloride cotransporter (NCC) from the winter flounder urinary bladder was first reported. The cloning of this cotransporter cDNA opened the possibility to identify orthologues from the mammalian kidney and also other members of the electroneutral cation-chloride cotransporter family (SLC12), such as the Na-K-2Cl and the K-Cl cotransporters genes. In humans, NCC is involved in blood pressure, where its activation or inhibition raises or lowers blood pressure. Since its discovery, NCC has provided us with important and fundamental insights of the basic physiological mechanisms of NaCl regulation by the kidney.
With the present Research Topic of Frontiers in Physiology we would like to provide an overview of the remarkable amount of data generated over the 30 past years on NCC and other SLC12 members function and regulation. This intense research has stablished NCC as a major player, not only NaCl reabsorption and blood pressure regulation in mammalian renal distal tubule, but also in the potassium and acid base handling by the kidney. Other members of the family have also revealed interesting and previously unsuspected physiological roles in central nervous system and other organs.
On April 1993, the isolation of a cDNA encoding a thiazide-sensitive, electroneutral sodium-chloride cotransporter (NCC) from the winter flounder urinary bladder was first reported. The cloning of this cotransporter cDNA opened the possibility to identify orthologues from the mammalian kidney and also other members of the electroneutral cation-chloride cotransporter family (SLC12), such as the Na-K-2Cl and the K-Cl cotransporters genes. In humans, NCC is involved in blood pressure, where its activation or inhibition raises or lowers blood pressure. Since its discovery, NCC has provided us with important and fundamental insights of the basic physiological mechanisms of NaCl regulation by the kidney.
With the present Research Topic of Frontiers in Physiology we would like to provide an overview of the remarkable amount of data generated over the 30 past years on NCC and other SLC12 members function and regulation. This intense research has stablished NCC as a major player, not only NaCl reabsorption and blood pressure regulation in mammalian renal distal tubule, but also in the potassium and acid base handling by the kidney. Other members of the family have also revealed interesting and previously unsuspected physiological roles in central nervous system and other organs.