Aim: It has been shown previously that chronic social defeat stress produces development of strong anxiety and increases intensity of experimental metastasis in the losers in comparison with the winners and control mice. The question was: is it possible to decrease the number of metastases in the losers by chronic or acute diazepam treatment.
Materials and methods: Sensory contact model was used for generating male mice with repeated experience of social victories or defeats in daily agonistic interactions. Tumor cells of Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC) were injected into the tail vein of animals after 10 days of agonistic interactions. Then mice were treated acutely or chronically (7 days) with diazepam (1 mg/kg, i. p). Number of metastases in the lung was calculated in 16 days after tumor cell transplantation.
Results: Diazepam decreased the number of LLC metastases in anxious losers, whereas in the winners and control mice, without anxiety state, diazepam was ineffective.
Conclusion: Well-known anxiolytic diazepam may decrease intensity of metastasis in anxious mice.