Modeling chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) in vitro: Prospects and limitations

Neuronal cell cultures have been used as an essential tool for studying pathomechanisms of toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs and to develop neuroprotective approaches. They offer the opportunity to dissect disease mechanisms and molecular pathways while allowing precise control of a variety of confounding factors of the physio-chemical environment. As such, a growing number of in vitro studies are published each year to decipher mechanisms of neurotoxicity of taxanes, vinca alcaloids, proteasome inhibitors and platin derivatives and/or to test neuroprotective strategies. Here, we provide a review of cell culture techniques and outcome measures that have been used in the past or are currently employed to model chemotherapy induced neuropathy in vitro. Furthermore, we discuss their advantages as well as their limitations and ways to enhance efficiency and reproducibility of cell culture studies in the field of toxic neuropathy.