Western Blotting Analysis as a Tool to Study Receptor Tyrosine Kinases

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 784)

Abstract

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are involved in critical aspects of cell physiology ranging from cell ­survival, proliferation, growth, migration, and differentiation. A tight control of the extent and duration of signals elicited by activated RTKs is crucial for preventing over-stimulation, which can ultimately lead to unrestrained proliferative ability and neoplastic growth. Ligand-induced downregulation of RTKs has emerged as a key negative regulatory mechanism that can accomplish signaling attenuation, by removing activated receptors from the cell surface and committing them to degradation. The ability of RTKs to escape from ligand-induced downregulation has been reported as a recurrent mechanism of oncogenic deregulation in cancer.

Western blotting procedures have been extensively proven as straightforward assays to evaluate ­protein expression levels and have been widely applied to study RTKs downregulation.

Key words

Protein Western blotting Receptor tyrosine kinases 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Preparation of this chapter was supported by the Health Research Board of Ireland (Grant RP/2006/77); Trinity College Dublin’s Start-Up Funds for New Academics 2008/2009 and Science Foundation Ireland’s funding of Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer, Ireland (08/SRC/B1410).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical SciencesTrinity College DublinDublinIreland

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