Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Exploring the Regulation of Lipid Droplet Catabolism through Lipophagy
07:20

Exploring the Regulation of Lipid Droplet Catabolism through Lipophagy

Published on: January 31, 2025

573

The role of autophagy in regulating metabolism in the tumor microenvironment

Panpan Zhang1, Shanshan Cheng1, Xiaonan Sheng2

  • 1Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Gynecology Oncology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China.

Genes & Diseases
|May 24, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Autophagy, a programmed cell death process, is key to tumor growth by altering cell metabolism. This review explores how autophagy drives metabolic crosstalk between tumor and stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Cancer Metabolism
  • Tumor Microenvironment (TME)

Background:

  • Autophagy is a cellular degradation process crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis and energy balance.
  • Autophagy activation is increasingly recognized as a hallmark of cancer, influencing tumor cell metabolism and survival.
  • The tumor microenvironment (TME) involves complex interactions between tumor cells and various stromal cells, impacting cancer progression.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review recent advances in understanding the metabolic crosstalk between stromal and tumor cells mediated by autophagy within the TME.
  • To elucidate the mechanisms by which autophagy influences metabolic reprogramming in the TME.
  • To identify potential therapeutic targets based on autophagy-driven metabolic interactions in solid tumors.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of recent studies on autophagy, cancer metabolism, and the tumor microenvironment.
  • Analysis of research investigating the role of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins in cellular metabolism.
  • Synthesis of findings on metabolic interactions between tumor cells and stromal components like cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and cancer-associated endothelial cells (CAEs).

Main Results:

  • Autophagy enables tumor cells to recycle intracellular components, supporting mitochondrial function and meeting high metabolic demands for growth and proliferation.
  • Autophagy activation significantly influences the metabolism of stromal cells within the TME, contributing to a reprogramed tumor ecosystem.
  • The precise mechanisms of autophagy-mediated crosstalk between tumor and stromal cells remain an active area of investigation.

Conclusions:

  • Autophagy plays a critical role in the metabolic reprogramming of the TME, fostering tumor adaptability and progression.
  • Understanding autophagy-induced metabolic crosstalk is essential for developing novel cancer therapies.
  • Targeting autophagy-related metabolic pathways presents a promising strategy for cancer treatment.
Keywords:
AutophagyMetabolismTherapeutic targetsTumorTumor microenvironment

More Related Videos

Quantitative Analysis of Autophagy using Advanced 3D Fluorescence Microscopy09:59

Quantitative Analysis of Autophagy using Advanced 3D Fluorescence Microscopy

Published on: May 3, 2013

18.0K
Assessing Autophagic Flux by Measuring LC3, p62, and LAMP1 Co-localization Using Multispectral Imaging Flow Cytometry11:39

Assessing Autophagic Flux by Measuring LC3, p62, and LAMP1 Co-localization Using Multispectral Imaging Flow Cytometry

Published on: July 21, 2017

31.4K

Related Concept Videos

Autophagy01:27

Autophagy

Autophagy is a self-digesting process by which a cell protects itself from threats both within and outside the cell, ranging from abnormal proteins to invading bacteria. In this process, obsolete components of the cell and invading microbes are degraded by hydrolytic enzymes active in an acidic environment of the lysosomal lumen.
An autophagic pathway consists of a series of signaling events activated in response to diverse stress and physiological conditions such as food deprivation,...
4.4K
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression03:03

mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression

The mammalian target of rapamycin or mTOR protein was discovered in 1994 due to its direct interaction with rapamycin. The protein gets its name from a yeast homolog called TOR. The mTOR protein complex in mammalian cells plays a major role in balancing anabolic processes such as the synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleotides and catabolic processes, such as autophagy in response to environmental cues, such as availability of nutrients and growth factors.
The mTOR pathway or the...
3.8K
Delivery Pathways to the Lysosome01:36

Delivery Pathways to the Lysosome

Eukaryotic cells use different mechanisms to eliminate toxic waste obsolete and worn-out substances. Lysosomes play a pivotal role in this, and hence, these substances are carried to the lysosome from other parts of the cell and extracellular space through different pathways. The most elaborately studied pathways to the lysosome are the endocytic pathways.
Endocytosis
In endocytosis, the cell membrane takes up macromolecules and particles from the surrounding medium. Clathrin-mediated...
6.6K
The Tumor Microenvironment02:17

The Tumor Microenvironment

Every normal cell or tissue is embedded in a complex local environment called stroma, consisting of different cell types, a basal membrane, and blood vessels. As normal cells mutate and develop into cancer cells, their local environment also changes to allow cancer progression. The tumor microenvironment (TME) consists of a complex cellular matrix of stromal cells and the developing tumor. The cross-talk between cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells is critical to disrupt normal tissue...
6.7K
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells02:53

Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells accumulate genetic changes at an abnormally rapid rate due to the defects in the DNA repair mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, such genetic instability is advantageous for cancer development. Mutant cell lines accumulate a series of beneficial mutations that contribute to their progression into cancer.
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
5.9K
Autophagic Cell Death01:18

Autophagic Cell Death

Christian de Duve discovered “autophagy,” a process in which cellular components are engulfed by membrane-bound organelles called autophagosomes. The autophagosomes then fuse with lysosomes to digest the enclosed contents. Autophagy is generally activated in cells to prevent cell death. However, cell death is triggered when the damage is beyond repair.
Autophagy and Apoptosis
Autophagy can activate apoptosis. In normal conditions, the autophagy activating protein Beclin-1 and...
3.5K