Monitoring of cAMP synthesis and degradation in living cells

cAMP is an important second messenger with a plethora of cellular effects and bio-logical roles. To monitor and visualize cAMP in intact living cells, electrophysiological and fluorescent methods have been developed based on activation of all three types of cAMP effectors: protein kinase A, cyclic nucleoticle-gated channels, and exchange protein directly activated by cAMP. In this review, we describe and compare these techniques in terms of their robustness, sensitivity and spatio-temporal resolution.