Effect of antidepressants on body weight, ethology and tumor growth of human pancreatic carcinoma xenografts in nude mice

AIM: To investigate the effects of mirtazapine and fluoxetine, representatives of the noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA) and se- lective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepres- sant respectively, on body weight, ingestive behavior, locomotor activity and tumor growth of human pancre- atic carcinoma xenografts in nude mice. METHODS: A subcutaneous xenograft model of hu- man pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 was estab- lished in nude mice. The tumor-bearing mice were ran- domly divided into mirtazapine group [10 mg/(kg·d)], fluoxetine group [10 mg/(kg·d)] and control group (an equivalent normal saline solution) (7 mice in each group). Doses of all drugs were administered orally, once a day for 42 d. Tumor volume and body weight were measured biweekly. Food intake was recorded once a week. Locomotor activity was detected weekly using an open field test (OFT). RESULTS: Compared to the fluoxetine, mirtazapine significantly increased food intake from d 14 to 42 and attenuated the rate of weight loss from d 28 to 42 (t = 4.38, P < 0.05). Compared to the control group, food intake was significantly suppressed from d 21 to 42 and weight loss was promoted from d 35 to 42 in the fluoxetine group (t = 2.52, P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in body weight of the mice after removal of tumors among the three groups. The body weight of mice was the heaviest (13.66 ± 1.55 g) in the mirtazapine group and the lightest (11.39 ± 1.45 g) in the fluoxetine group (F(2,12) = 11.43, P < 0.01). The behavioral test on d 7 showed that the horizontal and vertical activities were significantly increased in the mirtazapine group compared with the fluoxetine and control groups (F(2,18) = 10.89, P < 0.01). These effects disappeared in the mirtazapine and fluoxetine groups during 2-6 wk. The grooming activity was higher in the mirtazapine group than in the fluoxetine group (10.1 ± 2.1 vs 7.1 ± 1.9 ) (t = 2.40, P < 0.05) in the second week. There was no significant difference in tumor vol- ume and tumor weight of the three groups. CONCLUSION: Mirtazapine and fluoxetine have no effect on the growth of pancreatic tumor. However, mirtazapine can significantly increase food intake and improve nutrition compared with fluoxetine in a pan- creatic cancer mouse model.