Treatment of human colorectal tumor cells (LS174T, HT-29, and WiDr) with analogues of cyclic AMP (cAMP) (dibutyryl-cAMP and 8-Cl-cAMP) selectively enhances the expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Dose and temporal kinetics results revealed that 8-Cl-cAMP was approximately 100-fold more potent than dibutyryl-cAMP for increasing CEA expression. Results demonstrated that 8-Cl-cAMP treatment of LS174T quantitatively increased CEA levels in cell extracts 2-fold, increased anti-CEA monoclonal antibody (MAb) binding to the tumor cell surface, and induced the appearance of CEA-related mRNA transcripts. The findings suggest that 8-Cl-cAMP is capable of regulating CEA expression at transcriptional and/or post-transcriptional levels. Other human tumor cells, as well as normal cell types which do not constitutively express CEA, remained CEA-negative following 8-Cl-cAMP treatment. Moreover, the level of expression of other human tumor antigens as well as antigens of the major histocompatibility complex were not changed by 8-Cl-cAMP treatment, suggesting some selectivity for CEA regulation by this cAMP analogue. In vivo administration of 8-Cl-cAMP to athymic mice bearing LS174T tumor xenografts increased the amount of anti-CEA MAb bound to tumor extracts as well as the tumor localization of a radionuclide-conjugated anti-CEA MAb. The results indicate that 8-Cl-cAMP can selectively upregulate CEA expression on human colorectal tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, IFN-gamma treatment of the LS174T cells fails to enhance or induce expression of CEA or any of the histocompatibility leukocyte antigens. Thus, 8-Cl-cAMP treatment regulates CEA expression through another cellular pathway which may involve cAMP-dependent protein kinase.