Donna Peehl

Research/Lab website:   urology site

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.