OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of different doses of propofol on pulmonary metastasis of intravenous injected tumor cells and expression of MTA1 and Wnt1 in the metastatic tumor in rats.

METHODSForty male Fischer344 rats were randomly divided into 4 equal groups for intravenous administration of normal saline, intralipid, or propofol at the dose of 30 or 50 mg/kg pumped via the femoral vein. One hour after the infusion, MADB106 tumor cells (2×10) were injected intravenously in the rats. Pulmonary metastasis of the tumor cells was observed and the expression of MTA1 and Wnt1 in the metastatic tumor detected by immunohistochemistry 3 weeks later.

RESULTSThe rats receiving saline and intralipid treatments showed a comparable number of pulmonary metastasis and similar expression levels of MTA1 and Wnt1 in the metastatic tumor (P>0.05); the tumor number and MTA1 and Wnt1 were significantly lower in the two propofol groups (P<0.01). The doses of propofol was inversely correlated with the number of pulmonary metastasis (r=-0.879) and expressions of MTA1 (r=-0.980) and Wnt1 (r=-0.916) (P<0.01), and MTA1 and Wnt1 expression levels in the metastatic tumors were closed correlated (r=0.902, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONPropofol can dose-dependently suppress pulmonary metastasis of intravenously injected tumor cells and down-regulate MTA1 and Wnt1 expressions in the metastatic tumor tissue.