Cyclic Nucleotides and Cell Growth

Abstract

Recent speculation concerning the role of cyclic nucleotides in the control of cell proliferation centres on mechanism in which cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP have opposing regulatory actions. (Hadden et al. 3 (1); Kram and Tomkins, (2); Goldberg et al., (3)). According to this model, cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP act as intracellular signals, respectively negative and positive, for cell growth in response to changes occurring in the environment. This hypothesis was developed independently as the result of personal investigations on the role of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP as mediators of the “pleiotypic control” of cell growth proposed by Tomkins and co-workers, and of the work in Goldberg’s laboratory on the “Yin Yang or dualism hypothesis” of biological control through opposing actions of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP.