Use of Antisense Oligonucleotide Technology to Investigate Signaling Pathways in Megakaryocytes

The use of inhibitors of signal transducers or signal modulators is essential for studies on intracellular signaling. A variety of pharmacological compounds is available to block the main pathways of signal transduction. These compounds, however, have limited specificity and considerable toxicity. To investigate the role of a single molecule within a pathway, this level of precision is usually insufficient. Antisense oligonucleotide technology provides a particularly specific and rapid method for inhibiting the expression of a particular gene, and therefore for exploring the function of the gene product. Over the past two decades, several hundred publications have documented the usefulness of this approach to inhibit gene expression at the mRNA level and, consequently, to decrease the expression level of specific proteins.