Scholars@Duke
Colleen Wu

Colleen Wu

Associate Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery
Orthopaedic Surgery
colleen.wu@duke.edu
308 Research Drive, LSRC Rm B329, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Radiation-induced bone loss in mice is ameliorated by inhibition of HIF-2α in skeletal progenitor cells.

Journal Article Sci Transl Med · November 29, 2023 Radiotherapy remains a common treatment modality for cancer despite skeletal complications. However, there are currently no effective treatments for radiation-induced bone loss, and the consequences of radiotherapy on skeletal progenitor cell (SPC) surviva ... Full text Link to item Cite

Utilizing Low Oxygen Tension to Reduce Hematopoietic Cells in Murine Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Cultures.

Journal Article J Vis Exp · April 21, 2023 Currently, there remains a lack of universally accepted markers to prospectively isolate a homogeneous population of skeletal stem cells (SSCs). For this reason, BMSCs, which support hematopoiesis and contribute to all the functions of the skeleton, contin ... Full text Link to item Cite

ABL kinases regulate the stabilization of HIF-1α and MYC through CPSF1.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · April 2023 The hypoxia-inducible factor 1-α (HIF-1α) enables cells to adapt and respond to hypoxia (Hx), and the activity of this transcription factor is regulated by several oncogenic signals and cellular stressors. While the pathways controlling normoxic degradatio ... Full text Open Access Cite

Hypertrophic chondrocytes serve as a reservoir for marrow-associated skeletal stem and progenitor cells, osteoblasts, and adipocytes during skeletal development.

Journal Article Elife · February 18, 2022 Hypertrophic chondrocytes give rise to osteoblasts during skeletal development; however, the process by which these non-mitotic cells make this transition is not well understood. Prior studies have also suggested that skeletal stem and progenitor cells (SS ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hypoxia depletes contaminating CD45+ hematopoietic cells from murine bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) cultures: Methods for BMSC culture purification.

Journal Article Stem Cell Res · May 2021 Culture expanded bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are easily isolated, can be grown rapidly en masse, and contain both skeletal stem cells (SSCs) and multipotent mesenchymal progenitors (MMPs). Despite this functional heterogeneity, BMSCs continue to be u ... Full text Link to item Cite

Detection of Hypoxic Regions in the Bone Microenvironment.

Journal Article Methods Mol Biol · 2021 Oxygen serves as a critical environmental factor essential for maintaining the physiological state of a tissue. Hypoxia, or low oxygen, triggers a cascade of events which allows for cells to adapt to low oxygen tensions and to facilitate oxygen delivery re ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Amino Acid Sensor Eif2ak4/GCN2 Is Required for Proliferation of Osteoblast Progenitors in Mice.

Journal Article J Bone Miner Res · October 2020 Skeletal stem/progenitor cells (SSPC) are critical regulators of bone homeostasis by providing a continuous supply of osteoblasts throughout life. In response to inductive signals, SSPC proliferate before osteoblast differentiation. Proliferation requires ... Full text Link to item Cite

Suppression of PGC-1α Is Critical for Reprogramming Oxidative Metabolism in Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Journal Article Cell Rep · July 7, 2015 Long believed to be a byproduct of malignant transformation, reprogramming of cellular metabolism is now recognized as a driving force in tumorigenesis. In clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), frequent activation of HIF signaling induces a metabolic sw ... Full text Link to item Cite

Oxygen-sensing PHDs regulate bone homeostasis through the modulation of osteoprotegerin

Journal Article Genes & Development · April 15, 2015 The bone microenvironment is composed of niches that house cells across variable oxygen tensions. However, the contribution of oxygen gradients in regulating bone and blood homeostasis remains unknown. Here, we generated mice with either single or ... Full text Cite

Osteoblasts: a Novel Source of Erythropoietin

Journal Article Current Osteoporosis Reports · December 2014 Full text Cite

PHD Inhibition Mitigates and Protects Against Radiation-Induced Gastrointestinal Toxicity via HIF2

Journal Article Science Translational Medicine · May 14, 2014 Pharmacologic inhibition or knockout of HIF-prolyl hydroxylases in mice reduces morbidity and mortality from radiation-induced gastrointestinal syndrome. ... Full text Cite

Aggressive fibromatosis (desmoid tumor) is derived from mesenchymal progenitor cells.

Journal Article Cancer Res · October 1, 2010 The cellular origins from which most tumors arise are poorly defined, especially in mesenchymal neoplasms. Aggressive fibromatosis, also known as desmoid tumor, is a locally invasive soft tissue tumor that has mesenchymal characteristics. We found that agg ... Full text Link to item Cite

Side population cells in human cancers.

Journal Article Cancer Lett · September 8, 2008 Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are found in multiple tumor types. While the presence of surface markers selectively expressed on CSCs are used to isolate these cells, no marker or pattern of makers are known to prospectively identify CSCs in many tumor types. In ... Full text Link to item Cite

Side population cells isolated from mesenchymal neoplasms have tumor initiating potential.

Journal Article Cancer Res · September 1, 2007 Although many cancers are maintained by tumor-initiating cells, this has not been shown for mesenchymal tumors, in part due to the lack of unique surface markers that identify mesenchymal progenitors. An alternative technique to isolate stem-like cells is ... Full text Link to item Cite