Fig. 4
DEX promotes tumour metastases in mice exposed to tumour excision. 1 × 106 LLC cells were injected s.c. into the dorsa of C57BL/6 mice. When tumours were ~ 1500 mm3 in size, 14 days after LLC inoculation, the mice were randomly divided into three groups and treated with PBS (Ctrl group), dexmedetomidine (DEX group), or dexmedetomidine and yohimbine (DEX + YOH group). Then the mice immediately underwent surgical removal of the tumor. All mice were sacrificed 10 days after surgery and the numbers of metastases on the lung surface were counted. a Typical examples of lung tissue. b The number of tumour lesions per lung (six mice per group). c Survival of mice in Ctrl, DEX and DEX + YOH group (ten mice per group). Data presented are representative of three replicated experiments