Faculty - Duke BME

Jun Chen, Assistant Research Professor

Contact Info:

Office Location:	355B MSRB I
Office Phone:	(919) 660-5374
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://settonlab.pratt.duke.edu

Specialties:: Injury and Orthopedic Biomechanics
Tissue Repair, Tissue Engineering

Research Interests: intervertebral disc cell biology and repair: Current projects: Biological role of notochordal cells in intervertebral disc aging; Cells of the immature nucleus pulposus (NP) are biologically active and may play an important role in regulating matrix biosynthesis during intervertebral disc (IVD) development and aging. The immature NP contains a large amount of notochordal cells that disappear with aging. Preliminary results suggest that cells derived from the notochordal cell-containing NP do not respond to physical stimuli and soluble mediators in the same manner as cells from the neighboring anulus fibrosus. These differences for the immature NP may be mediated by different receptor-matrix interactions that may be important in regulating the onset and progression of IVD aging and degeneration. We have recently developed a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) protocol that identifies a population of notochordal-like NP cells with a unique molecular phenotype (i.e. unique integrin and mRNA expression pattern) distinct from that of smaller cells within the NP. We propose that cell-matrix interactions in the NP may be altered upon aging of this subpopulation of cells, a change that may contribute to decreases in cellularity and metabolism associated with IVD degeneration. The central hypothesis is that a change in the notochordal cell population with aging is associated with a dramatic alteration in the distribution of secreted proteins and cell surface receptors within the NP that regulates cell-matrix interactions and responses to environmental stimuli.

Areas of Interest:: intervertebral disc bilogy
cartilage biology
aging & degeneration
cell-matrix interaction
cellular therapy

Representative Publications (More Publications)

Gilchrist CL, Chen J, Richardson WJ, Loeser RF and Setton LA, Functional integrin subunits regulating cell-matrix interaction in the intervertebral disc, Journal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 25 (2007), pp. 829-40 [abs].
Hyun J, Chen J, Setton LA and Chilkoti A, Patterning cells in highly deformable microstructures: Effect of plastic deformation of substrate on cellular phenotype and gene expression, Biomaterials, vol. 27 (2006), pp. 1444-1451 [abs].
Upton LM, Chen J and Setton LA, Region-specific constitutive gene expression in the adult meniscus, Journal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 24 (2006), pp. 1562-1570 [abs].
Chen J, Yan W and Setton LA, Molecular phenotypes of notochordal cells purified from immature nucleus pulposus, European Spine Journal, vol. 15 no. Suppl 3 (2006), pp. S303-311 [abs].
Boyd LM, Richardson W, Chen J, Kraus VB, Tewari A and Setton LA, Osmolarity regulates gene expression in intervertebral disc cells determined by gene array and real-time quantitative PCR, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 33 (2005), pp. 1071-1077 [abs].
Chen J, Yan W and Setton LA, Static compression induces zonal-specific changes in gene expression for extracellular matrix and cytoskeletal proteins in intervertebral disc cells in vitro, Matrix Biology, vol. 22 (2004), pp. 573-583 [abs].
Boyd LM, Chen J, Kraus VB and Setton LA, Conditioned medium differentially regulates matrix protein gene expression in cells of the intervertebral disc, spine, vol. 29 (2004), pp. 2217-2222 [abs].
Upton ML, Chen J, Guilak F and Setton LA, Differential effects of static and dynamic compression on meniscal cell gene expression, Journal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 21 (2003), pp. 963-969 [S0736-0266(03)00063-9] [abs].
Chen J, Baer AE, Paik PY, Yan W and Setton LA, Matrix protein gene expression in intervertebral disc cells subjected to altered osmolarity, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 293 (2002), pp. 932-938 [abs].