Recent insights into cell death and autophagy #MMPMID26367268
Fitzwalter B; Thorburn A
FEBS J 2015[Nov]; 282 (22): 4279-88 PMID26367268show ga
Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is an evolutionarily-ancient mechanism by which cellular material is delivered to lysosomes for degradation. Autophagy and cell death are intimately linked. For example, both processes often use the same molecular machinery and recent work suggests that autophagy has great influence over a cell?s decision to live or die. However, this decision making is complicated by the fact that autophagy?s role in determining whether a cell should live or die goes both ways?autophagy inhibition can result in more or less cell death depending on the death stimulus, cell type, or context. Autophagy may also differentially affect different types of cell death. Here we discuss recent literature that helps make sense of this seemingly inconsistent role of autophagy in influencing a cell to live or die.