Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026

Assessing Autophagic Flux by Measuring LC3, p62, and LAMP1 Co-localization Using Multispectral Imaging Flow Cytometry
Published on: July 21, 2017
Autophagy as a stress-response and quality-control mechanism: implications for cell injury and human disease
Lyndsay Murrow1, Jayanta Debnath
1Department of Pathology, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California-San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Lyndsay.Murrow@ucsf.edu
Abstract:
Autophagy, a vital catabolic process that degrades cytoplasmic components within the lysosome, is an essential cytoprotective response to pathologic stresses that occur during diseases such as cancer, ischemia, and infection. In addition to its role as a stress-response pathway, autophagy plays an essential quality-control function in the cell by promoting basal turnover of long-lived proteins and organelles, as well as by selectively degrading damaged cellular components. This homeostatic function protects against a wide variety of diseases, including neurodegeneration, myopathy, liver disease, and diabetes. This review discusses our current understanding of these two principal functions of autophagy and describes in detail how alterations in autophagy promote human disease.
Related Concept Videos
Cellular Injury V: Apoptosis and Autophagy
Autophagy
An autophagic pathway consists of a series of signaling events activated in response to diverse stress and physiological conditions such as food deprivation,...
Delivery Pathways to the Lysosome
Endocytosis
In endocytosis, the cell membrane takes up macromolecules and particles from the surrounding medium. Clathrin-mediated...
Autophagic Cell Death
Autophagy and Apoptosis
Autophagy can activate apoptosis. In normal conditions, the autophagy activating protein Beclin-1 and pro-apoptotic...
Cellular Injury I: Introduction
Regulation of the Unfolded Protein Response

