Caged Intracellular Messengers and the Inositol Phosphate Signaling Pathway

The development of caged intracellular messenger compounds offers an elegant new approach to quantitative, time-resolved studies of intracellular signaling pathways. Several reviews of caged compounds have recently appeared (Kaplan and Somlyo, 1989 ; McCray and Trentham, 1989 ; Homsher and Miller, 1990 ; Somlyo and Somlyo, 1990 ), which may be consulted for details of their synthesis, properties, and use. The present chapter concentrates on practical aspects of the use of caged compounds, derived from work in the author’s laboratory using caged inositol trisphosphate to study signaling in Xenopus oocytes.