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Updated: Apr 30, 2026

Cell Type-specific Gene Expression Profiling in the Mouse Liver
Published on: September 17, 2019
Autophagy in hepatic fibrosis
Yang Song1, Yingying Zhao1, Fei Wang1
1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Shanghai Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, 389 Xincun Road, Shanghai 200065, China.
Abstract:
Hepatic fibrosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Hepatic fibrosis is usually associated with chronic liver diseases caused by infection, drugs, metabolic disorders, or autoimmune imbalances. Effective clinical therapies are still lacking. Autophagy is a cellular process that degrades damaged organelles or protein aggregation, which participates in many pathological processes including liver diseases. Autophagy participates in hepatic fibrosis by activating hepatic stellate cells and may participate as well through influencing other fibrogenic cells. Besides that, autophagy can induce some liver diseases to develop while it may play a protective role in hepatocellular abnormal aggregates related liver diseases and reduces fibrosis. With a better understanding of the potential effects of autophagy on hepatic fibrosis, targeting autophagy might be a novel therapeutic strategy for hepatic fibrosis in the near future.
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