CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Autophagy is a well-known cellular process involved in many physiological and pathological processes. Duringerythropoiesis, autophagy plays an important role participating in the clearance of unnecessary organelles suchas ribosomes and mitochondria (mitophagy) allowing the correct formation of mature red blood cells. Thedysfunction of autophagy proteins hamper the correct erythroid maturation, leading to anemia, the release ofimmature cells from the bone marrow and other hematological abnormalities. Autophagy plays different rolesdepending on the type of pathology. In leukemia cells, it has been demonstrated that autophagy could be eitherdetrimental, leading to an increase of the apoptosis rate, or protective, acting as a key process that augmentsproliferation and survival of cancer cells. Thus, understanding the relationship between autophagy anderythropoiesis opens new avenues for the discovery of biochemical and pharmacological targets and for thedevelopment of novel therapeutic approaches.