It has recently been shown that elevation of cAMP by adenosine receptor stimulation may be potentiated by stimulation of the T-cell receptor/CD3 complex on human T-cells with the monoclonal antibody OKT3, and that this is mimicked by activation of protein kinase C [Kvanta, A. et al. (1989) Naunyn-Schmeideberg's Arch. Pharmac. 340, 715-717]. In this study the diterpene forskolin, which binds to and activates the adenylate cyclase, has been used to examine further how the CD3 complex may influence the adenylate cyclase pathway. Stimulation with OKT3 alone was found to cause a small dose-dependent increase in basal cAMP accumulation. When combining OKT3 with a concentration of forskolin (10 microM), which by itself had little effect on the cyclase activity, the cAMP accumulation was markedly potentiated. This potentiation was paralleled by an increase in [3H]forskolin binding to saponine permeabilized Jurkat cells from 24 to 41 fmol/10(6) cells. The OKT3 effect on cAMP was blocked by chelating extracellular Ca2+ with EGTA or intracellular Ca2+ with BAPTA and also by W-7, an inhibitor of calmodulin, but was unaffected by H-7, an inhibitor of protein kinase C. Even though OKT3 caused an increase in inositolphosphate turnover, and activated protein kinase C, neither phorbol 12,13 dibutyrate (PDBu) nor the Ca2(+)-ionophore A23187 could mimic the OKT3 effect, whereas a combination of PDBu and A23187 at high concentrations could potentiate forskolin stimulated cyclase activity. Together, these results indicated that stimulation of the CD3 complex could influence the adenylate cyclase by two different mechanisms, one involving activation of protein kinase C and another which does not.