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Review
. 2020 Dec 10:8:602901.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.602901. eCollection 2020.

Autophagy in the Regulation of Tissue Differentiation and Homeostasis

Cristiana Perrotta  1 , Maria Grazia Cattaneo  2 , Raffaella Molteni  2 , Clara De Palma  2
Affiliations
Review

Autophagy in the Regulation of Tissue Differentiation and Homeostasis

Cristiana Perrotta et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Autophagy is a constitutive pathway that allows the lysosomal degradation of damaged components. This conserved process is essential for metabolic plasticity and tissue homeostasis and is crucial for mammalian post-mitotic cells. Autophagy also controls stem cell fate and defective autophagy is involved in many pathophysiological processes. In this review, we focus on established and recent breakthroughs aimed at elucidating the impact of autophagy in differentiation and homeostasis maintenance of endothelium, muscle, immune system, and brain providing a suitable framework of the emerging results and highlighting the pivotal role of autophagic response in tissue functions, stem cell dynamics and differentiation rates.

Keywords: autophagy; tissue differentiation; tissue homeostasis; tissue pathophysiology; tissue remodeling.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic representation of the role of autophagy in muscle, immune system, endothelium, and brain. Autophagy is a multi-step process that involves phagophore formation from the endoplasmic reticulum-associated structure called omegasome or phagophore assembly site (PAS). This structure grows around the material to be eliminated and forms a characteristic double-membrane vesicle called autophagosome. Mature autophagosome fuses with lysosomes to form autolysosome wherein the material is digested by lysosomal hydrolases. Autophagy regulates many functions in each tissue analyzed, it is important for their remodeling after stimuli or stress conditions and it is altered in many pathologic conditions.
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