Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Exploring the Regulation of Lipid Droplet Catabolism through Lipophagy
Published on: January 31, 2025
Autophagy and disease: unanswered questions
Ying Yang1, Daniel J Klionsky2
1Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and the Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Abstract:
Autophagy is a process in which intracellular components and dysfunctional organelles are delivered to the lysosome for degradation and recycling. Autophagy has various connections to a large number of human diseases, as its functions are essential for cell survival, bioenergetic homeostasis, organism development, and cell death regulation. In the past two decades, substantial effort has been made to identify the roles of autophagy in tumor suppression and promotion, neurodegenerative disorders, and other pathophysiologies. This review summarizes the current advances and discusses the unanswered questions in understanding the involvement of autophagy in pathogenic mechanisms of disease, primarily focusing on cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
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