Article
Autophagy and inflammatory diseases
15 Jan 2013
Abstract excerpt
Autophagy is a cellular mechanism for the sequestration and degradation of intracellular pathogens and compromised organelles, particularly damaged mitochondria. Autophagy also clears other cellular components, such as inflammasomes and cytokines, thus providing an important means of regulating inflammation. Defects in autophagy have been found by genetic association studies to confer susceptibility to several...