Changes in guinea pig plasma cyclic nucleotide levels during the development of a transplantable leukemia

Plasma levels of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP were determined in 35 guinea pigs for up to 9 days following subcutaneous passage of L2C leukemia cells. Twenty guinea pigs into which normal syngeneic guinea pig thymocytes were passaged served as controls. Cyclic AMP levels in plasma showed little change and were only elevated significantly in test animals on day 9 after passage. In contrast cyclic GMP levels reached a maximum on day 5 after passage of leukemia cells with two to threefold rises over day 1 levels. Increases in leukocyte counts were not observed until day 7 in test animals. Of the other tumour growth indices which were examined, the axillary (draining) node index gave the earliest indication of cell proliferation, with significant elevations on day 3 after passage. The authors conclude that plasma cyclic GMP increases precede increases in white cell counts by at least 2 days, and may reflect an early increase in axillary node growth.