During the development of myocardial hypertrophy induced by 3,3',5-triiodo-L-thyronine the enhancement of de novo synthesis of adenine nucleotides occurs very early and precedes the increase of protein synthesis. In this respect there is a striking parallelism with other types of cardiac hypertrophy. 2) The acceleration of adenine nucleotide synthesis under these experimental conditions seems to be due to a greater availability of cardiac 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate. 3) The triiodothyronine-induced enhancement of adenine nucleotide synthesis can be attenuated by beta-receptor-blocking agents.