In recent years, the information crosstalk between the central nervous system and the periphery has been a hot topic, such as the brain–gut axis, brain–lung axis, etc. Among them, some studies have shown that brainstem nuclei activity can significantly affect the progression of peripheral tumor; however, regarding lung cancer, our understanding of the basic characteristics of the lung-innervating brain nuclei responsive to lung cancer progression remains deficient. Therefore, we used the pseudorabies virus for retrograde labeling of nerves to study the neural circuits between the lung and brain. We then established a mouse orthotopic lung cancer model and used the expression of the c-Fos gene in brain regions to characterize activated brain circuits and compared these results with those of the control group. We focused on c-Fos activity in nuclei associated with retrograde tracing regions of the brainstem. We found over 16 nuclei in the whole brain with direct or indirect lung innervation through neural retrograde labeling with the pseudorabies virus. We further revealed that the neuronal activity of the rostral ventrolateral reticular nucleus (RVL), caudal nucleus of Raphe (raphe obscurus nucleus, ROb), Raphe pallidus nucleus (RPa), and ventral gigantocellular reticular nucleus (GiV) in the rostral ventromedial and lateral medulla were significantly changed in an orthotopic lung cancer mouse model by the immunostaining of c-Fos early responsive protein. Thus, the distinctive rostroventral medulla area, functionally closely related to the vagus nerve, likely plays a role in central neural interaction with peripheral lung tumors and deserves future investigation.

This study investigated the protective effect of dexmedetomidine (Dex) on lung injury during one-lung ventilation (OLV) in elderly patients undergoing radical esophagectomy with remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC). Fifty-four esophageal cancer patients undergoing radical esophagectomy were divided into control, RIPC and RIPC+Dex group. During the anesthesia and ventilation in surgery, the RIPC was performed in RIPC group, and the intravenous infusion of Dex based on RIPC was conducted in RIPC+Dex group. At the time immediately before OLV beginning (T1), 60 min of OLV (T2) and end of surgery (T3), the oxygenation index (OI) and respiratory index (RI) were recorded, and the serum superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels were determined. Results showed that, compared with RIPC group, in RIPC+Dex group the OI at T2 and T3 increased, the RI at T2 and T3 decreased, the serum SOD level at T3 increased, the serum MDA level at T3 decreased, the serum TNF-α and IL-6 levels at T2 and T3 decreased (all P < 0.05). In conclusion, for elderly patients undergoing radical esophagectomy with RIPC, Dex can effectively inhibit the oxidative stress and inflammatory response during OLV, thus alleviating the lung injury and reducing the postoperative complications.