In vitro screening of antitumour agents for cardiotoxicity by means of isolated mouse left atria

Cardiotoxicity, a side-effect that can occur after treatment with an antica ncer drug, has severe clinical implications Therefore, a model is desired t o screen new anticancer dugs ol drug combinations for possible cardiotoxic side-effects. In the present study we rested the applicability of the elect rically stimulated isolated mouse left atrium model using a wide range of a nticancer drugs with known cardiotoxicity. It appeared that the cardiotoxic ity observed in our model, i.e, the negative or positive inotropic effects of the drugs on the isolated atrium, corresponded with the observed cardiot oxicity in animals and/or humans. It is therefore concluded that our model can be used to wam for possible cardiotoxic side-effects of anticancer drug s in vivo.