Off-treatment course of cisplatin-induced dorsal root ganglia neuronopathy in rats.

As yet little is known about the off-treatment course of cisplatin (CDDP) neurotoxicity. In this study we evaluated in the rat how the pathological changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons and the electrophysiological alterations in peripheral nerves induced by chronic CDDP administration evolved after drug withdrawal. Twelve female Wistar rats were treated with CDDP and 3 of them were sacrificed 1, 5, 10 and 20 weeks after treatment. The results of the experiment indicated that: 1) the damage induced by sub-lethal doses of CDDP in the DRG neurons is reversible, 2) the first structures to be damaged are the DRG neurons (mostly their nucleoli) and 3) both damage and recovery in the follow-up period involve first the DRG neurons and subsequently the peripheral nerves.