Emerging Roles of Lipophagy in Health and Disease.

Konstantinos Kounakis,Nektarios Tavernarakis,Maria Markaki,Manos Chaniotakis

doi:10.3389/fcell.2019.00185

Konstantinos Kounakis, Nektarios Tavernarakis + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2019.00185

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Abstract

The term lipophagy is used to describe the autophagic degradation of lipid droplets, the main lipid storage organelles of eukaryotic cells. Ever since its discovery in 2009, lipophagy has emerged as a significant component of lipid metabolism with important implications for organismal health. This review aims to provide a brief summary of our current knowledge on the mechanisms that are responsible for regulating lipophagy and the impact the process has under physiological and pathological conditions.

Highlights

Autophagy at a GlanceThe term autophagy is used to describe the lysosomal degradation of cytosolic material, a highly conserved process
We provide a brief summary of the existing knowledge on the mechanisms and regulation of lipophagy, as well as its functional importance in normal aging and disease
Experiments in C. elegans have shown that HLH-30/TFEBmediated autophagy is a critical component of long lived phenotypes (Lapierre et al, 2013) and that the induction of lysosomal lipases can have a positive effect on organismal lifespan (O’Rourke and Ruvkun, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The term autophagy is used to describe the lysosomal degradation of cytosolic material, a highly conserved process It encompasses three distinct but related types: macroautophagy, microautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA). Autophagy can act as a means for the cell to redistribute valuable nutrients in conditions of starvation; this is the case of bulk autophagy, which generally targets random parts of the cytosol It can act as a means to dispose of excessive or damaged organelles or invading microbes; this is the case of selective autophagy that involves the degradation of specific organelles such as the nucleus, mitochondria, peroxisomes, and often relies on specialized receptors and regulatory pathways to achieve that specificity (Rogov et al, 2014)

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