Increased cyclic GMP content in confluent and serum-restricted heart cell cultures exposed to polyamines

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) and cyclic GMP (cGMP) have been implicated as intracellular signals in the transition from a resting to a growing state. This suggestion comes from observations showing that the addition of growth promoting factors to quiescent cell cultures causes a rapid and transient decrease in cAMP and an increase in cGMP contents [9, 11] and that exogenous cAMP or cGMP congeners reduce or stimulate cell growth respectively [6, 13]. In view of this antagonistic effect elicited by the two nucleotides, it has been suggested that a fall in cAMP/cGMP ratio might be the triggering event for the initiation of cell proliferation [6]. Since polyamines correlate positively with active cell division [7], a possible involvement of these biogenic polycations in the regulation of cellular cyclic nucleotide contents is worthwhile investigating. Our previous reports have shown indeed that in different cultured cell types, spermine, spermidine and putrescine, at relatively low doses, are able to reduce cAMP content [3] by increasing cAMP-dependent phosphodiesterase activity (cAMP-PDE) [4] and to counteract the action of different cAMP-mediated effectors [3]. Besides endogenous polyamines seem to be involved in the cAMP-mediated induction of cAMP-PDE, as observed in heart cell cultures [4]. This report shows that the addition of each individual polyamine to confluent and serum-restricted heart cell cultures, while lowering cAMP content, induces an early and rapid increase of cGMP content by reducing the rate of its degradation.