Zymophagy, a Novel Mechanism for the Inducible and Selective Autophagic Degradation of Secretory Granules.

VACCARO, MI

Barga, Italia

Congreso; 2010 Gordon Research Conference, on Autophagy in Stress, Development & Disease; 2010

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:ES; mso-fareast-language:ES;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Zymophagy, a Novel Mechanism for the Inducible and Selective Autophagic Degradation of Secretory Granules. In the current study, we use cells and tissues from human and mouse origin for performing an extensive series of cell and biochemical studies to define a new cellular process in pancreatic acinar cells, which we term Zymophagy.  This process refers to a selective autophagic pathway for the degradation of zymogen granules during CCK-hyperstimulation, which involves the formation of enlarged zymogen-specific autophagosome, in both human and mice. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that zymophagy is a selective form of authophagy that occurs via a VMP1/Beclin 1-mediated mechanism in acinar cells in vitro and in vivo.  Pathophysiologically, zymophagy serves as a protective mechanism against experimental acute pancreatitis. Collectively, these results describe a new protective cellular process in pancreatitis, which is mediated by a novel type of selective autophagy.