POMC and adrenal cortex carcinoma: Thus, the biochemical conclusions were that the adrenocortical carcinoma 494 cells have generated an autonomic ACTH signaling machinery; it neither contains the normal second messenger signaling components of the membrane guanylate cyclase and cyclic AMP, nor of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase, yet it generates huge amounts of ACTH with the concomitant production of an overabundance of corticosterone.