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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Visualizing Mitophagy with Fluorescent Dyes for Mitochondria and Lysosome
Published on: November 30, 2022
Mitophagy in the Pathogenesis of Liver Diseases
Po-Yuan Ke1,2,3
1Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Autophagy is a catabolic process involving vacuolar sequestration of intracellular components and their targeting to lysosomes for degradation, thus supporting nutrient recycling and energy regeneration. Accumulating evidence indicates that in addition to being a bulk, nonselective degradation mechanism, autophagy may selectively eliminate damaged mitochondria to promote mitochondrial turnover, a process termed "mitophagy". Mitophagy sequesters dysfunctional mitochondria via ubiquitination and cargo receptor recognition and has emerged as an important event in the regulation of liver physiology. Recent studies have shown that mitophagy may participate in the pathogenesis of various liver diseases, such as liver injury, liver steatosis/fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, viral hepatitis, and hepatic fibrosis. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the molecular regulations and functions of mitophagy in liver physiology and the roles of mitophagy in the development of liver-related diseases. Furthermore, the therapeutic implications of targeting hepatic mitophagy to design a new strategy to cure liver diseases are discussed.
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