Slowing Growth and Histology Changes in Lewis Lung Carcinoma Implanted in a Partly Denervated Muscle

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of partial muscle denervation on a tumor inocculated on the same muscle. Experiments were performed on male C₅₇BL mice divided into two numerically equal A and B groups, each of which was subdived into three subroups A_A, A_B, A_c and B_A, B_B, B_C, respectively. The right sciatic nerve of each mice of the A group was incised and partly dissected (day 0). Then Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells were implanted on the right gastrocnemia of each mice of both groups on day 0 for subgroups A_A and B_A, on day 1 for subgroups A_B and B_B, and on day 4 for subgroups A_C and B_C. The incision and dissection of the sciatic nerve caused a significant reduction in the size of the tumor in all three A subgroups of mice. Fourteen days after implantation, the size of the primary tumors implanted on the right hind leg was 2.6 ± 0.32 cm³, 3.5 ± 0.21 cm³, and 4.7 ± 0.31 cm³ for the three B_A, B_B, B_C subgroups of the control group compared to 1.4 ± 0.19 cm³, 2.0 ± 0.28 cm³, and 3.0 ± 0.27 cm³ for the three subroups A_A, A_B, A_c, in which sciatic nerve was incised and dissected, indicating inhibition of the tumor growth of 46.2%, 43.0% and 36.2%, respectively. Although a smaller part of gastrocnemius is innervated by the anterior femoral nerve, which was left intact, denervation of the sciatic nerve caused inhibition of the tumor growth. This may be due to worse nutrition and/or blood supply of the LLC tumor. Mitochondria function and the degree of apoptosis of the tumor cells are further studied by us.

• Tumor transplantation
• Denervated muscle