Modelling chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity by human pluripotent stem cells

Novel antineoplastic therapies have greatly improved cancer survival; nevertheless they are bringing to new forms of cardiomyopathy, that can often limit proper cancer treatments. Novel cardioprotective therapies are therefore needed, for improving clinical outcomes in cancer patients. In order to test novel therapeutic strategies, there is an increasing need for appropriate experimental models of chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell- and human embryonic stem cell (hESC )-derived cardiomyocytes may be used as alternative in vitro models for studying mechanisms that underly chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy . In this review we discuss the use of iPS- and hESC-derived cardiomyocytes for evaluating additional pharmacological targets and for predicting chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity.