title: Autophagy in stem cell maintenance and differentiation.
abstract: Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent degradation pathway that allows cells to recycle damaged or superfluous cytoplasmic content, such as proteins, organelles, and lipids. As a consequence of autophagy, the cells generate metabolic precursors for macromolecular biosynthesis or ATP generation. Deficiencies in this pathway were associated to several pathological conditions, such as neurodegenerative and cardiac diseases, cancer, and aging. The aim of this review is to summarize recent discoveries showing that autophagy also plays a critical role in stem cell maintenance and in a variety of cell differentiation processes. We also discuss a possible role for autophagy during cellular reprogramming and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell generation by taking advantage of ATP generation for chromatin remodeling enzyme activity and mitophagy. Finally, the significance of autophagy modulation is discussed in terms of augmenting efficiency of iPS cell generation and differentiation processes.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. alexandre.vessoni@usp.br
authors: Alexandre Teixeira
authors: AT
authors: Vessoni
authors: Alysson Renato
authors: AR
authors: Muotri
authors: Oswaldo Keith
authors: OK
authors: Okamoto
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly / Q000502:physiology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000378:metabolism; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate