Use of Inhibitors in the Study of MAPK Signaling

To survive and execute their functions, cells need to respond to many extracellular signals such as soluble molecules, neighboring cells, and physical changes in the environment. When interacting with the cells, these extracellular signals cause many intracellular changes, which are executed through target molecules and gene expression. Therefore, the extracellular signal must be transferred from the extracellular moiety to the nucleus through several communication lines, which generally transmit the signal through a series of protein phosphorylation processes (for more details see Chapter 1 and references therein).