Donna Peehl

Honors and Awards

• Cardura International Competitive Award, Pfizer (2000/2001)
• Prostate Cancer Research Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation (2003)
• Prostate Cancer Research Award, CaP CURE (1993,1995,1996,1997,1999,2000)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology

Web Site Links

• urology site

Research Interests

Prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are major medical problems. We have developed techniques with which we can establish primary cultures of epithelial or stromal cells from normal, BPH or malignant prostatic tissues. We have used these cultures to investigate many aspects of molecular and cellular biology of the prostate. Our overall goal is to characterize growth regulatory processes that occur in the normal prostate, then to identify aberrations that may occur in cancer or BPH. With this knowledge, we may develop new approaches for prevention,diagnosis or therapy of prostate cancer or BPH. One growth-regulatory factor of current interest in our laboratory is vitamin D. Our studies with prostatic cell cultures have shown that prostate cells have vitamin D receptors and are targets of growth-inhibitory and differentiating activities of vitamin D. Our pre-clinical studies have led to pilot clinical studies to explore the efficacy of vitamin D as a therapeutic agent against prostate cancer. Techniques used in our laboratory include cell culture of primary tissues in serum-free medium, three-dimensional cultures, tissue slice cultures, immunochemistry, immunoblots, and transfection.

Publications

• Methods for metabolic evaluation of prostate cancer cells using proton and (13)C HR-MAS spectroscopy and [3-(13)C] pyruvate as a metabolic substrate. Levin YS, Albers MJ, Butler TN, Spielman D, Peehl DM, Kurhanewicz J. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 62 (5): 1091-8
• Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis and actions by genistein in human prostate cancer cells and by soy isoflavones in prostate cancer patients. Swami S, Krishnan AV, Moreno J, Bhattacharyya RS, Gardner C, Brooks JD, Peehl DM, Feldman D. Int J Cancer. 2009; 124 (9): 2050-9
• Tumor-promoting phenotype of CD90hi prostate cancer-associated fibroblasts. Zhao H, Peehl DM. Prostate. 2009; 69 (9): 991-1000
• Inhibition of monoamine oxidase A promotes secretory differentiation in basal prostatic epithelial cells. Zhao H, Nolley R, Chen Z, Reese SW, Peehl DM. Differentiation. 2008; 76 (7): 820-30
• Centrosomal PKCbetaII and pericentrin are critical for human prostate cancer growth and angiogenesis. Kim J, Choi YL, Vallentin A, Hunrichs BS, Hellerstein MK, Peehl DM, Mochly-Rosen D. Cancer Res. 2008; 68 (16): 6831-9