The emerging role of autophagy in alcoholic liver disease

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Wen-Xing Ding,
Sharon Manley and
Hong-Min Ni

Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, The University of Kansas Medical Center, MS 1018, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA

Corresponding author: Wen-Xing Ding. Email: wxding{at}kumc.edu

Autophagy is a highly conserved intracellular catabolic pathwaythat degrades cellular long-lived proteins and organelles. Autophagyis normally activated in response to nutrient deprivation andother stresses as a cell survival mechanism. Accumulating evidenceindicates that autophagy plays a critical role in liver pathophysiology,in addition to maintaining hepatic energy and nutrient balance.Alcohol consumption causes hepatic metabolic changes, oxidativestress, accumulation of lipid droplets and damaged mitochondria;all of these can be regulated by autophagy. This review summarizesthe recent findings about the role and mechanisms of autophagyin alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and the possible interventionfor treating ALD by modulating autophagy.

Keywords: autophagy, mitophagy, lipophagy, alcoholic liver disease

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