Departments of Physiology and Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, U.S.A. (Received 19 August 1977) Cyclic AMP has been increasingly implicated as an important intracellular mediator regulating the secretion of peptide hormones (Vale, Grant & Guillemin, 1973), but there is controversy concerning its role in the regulation of the luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LH-RH)-stimulated secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH; Labrie, Pelletier, Borgeat, Drouin, Ferland & Belanger, 1976; Ratner, Wilson, Srivastava & Peake, 1976; Sundberg, Fawcett & McCann, 1976). Although less clearly established, the guanyl cyclase–cyclic GMP system may also play an important role in regulating cellular events (Goldberg, O'Dea & Haddox, 1973). Studies with a highly purified growth hormone (GH) releasing factor suggested the involvement of cyclic GMP in the mediation of GH release from the somatotrope (Wilson, Steiner, Dhariwal & Peake, 1974). This communication describes studies which suggest a role for the guanylate