Usually, I measure the phosphorylating activity of the receptor or p-Akt or p-MAPK proteins by ELISA or their gene expression.
one of my colleagues at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Dr. Susanna Keller studies this pathway and is very competent in this field. You could contact her at and find out what she does.
http://med.virginia.edu/faculty/faculty-listing/srk4b/
I study the signalling of the insulin-like growth factor receptor, often by western blotting and have obtained good results. I have also used immunofluorescence to look at cellular location of certain signalling proteins. Phosphorylation of Akt and MAPK are good places to start. I would also recommend looking at phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, PDK1 activity and even the mTOR pathway. You could also use pathway inhibitors such as LY294002 or specific inhibitors of the insulin receptor. There are certainly other methods you could use, I have only mentioned the methods I have worked closely with. Good luck.
One approach that might be useful to actually quantify the signaling effects you get through insulin stimulation is to use reporter-gene assays (e.g. luciferase). I guess many promoters that respond to mitogenic and/or anti-apoptotic signals should work.
Good luck with your experiments! Christian
You have to detect phospho-akt and phospho-MAPK as important signaling molecules. They are could be measured by a specific antibody for immunoprecipitation and western blotting.
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