Autophagy in Cell Fate and Diseases

DANIEL GRASSO; ALEJANDRO ROPOLO; MARIA INES VACCARO

Cell Death - Autophagy, Apoptosisi and Necrosis

InTech

Lugar: Rijeka; Año: 2015; p. 1 - 24

Autophagy pathway has been one of the hot topics during the last decade. From ageneral notion about its cellular role, autophagy becomes a more sophisticatedphenomenon with significant implications in cellular homeostasis. Consequently,autophagy represents an emerging new factor in human diseases. Despite its generaltask, the bulk degradation of cellular constituents during starvation settings,autophagy possesses important cross talk and interrelationships with several cellularprocesses such as apoptosis and senescence, among others. This entire panoramagives us a complex but exciting scenario. Consequently, with the aim of encompassingthe whole spectrum, in this chapter, we review three main topics: autophagy as acellular process; autophagy in cell fate; and autophagy in disease. We discuss theemerging role of selective type of autophagy to avoid apoptosis or necrosis and thenovel relationship between autophagy and senescence to understand the real extentthat autophagy pathway has over cell fate. Finally, we briefly describe the currenttrends on autophagy in human pancreatic diseases and its role in cancer cell metabolism.