title: Ethanol-induced hepatic autophagy: Friend or foe?
abstract: Excessive alcohol intake may induce hepatic apoptosis, steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and even cancer. Ethanol-induced activation of general or selective autophagy as mitophagy or lipophagy in hepatocytes is generally considered a prosurvival mechanism. On the other side of the coin, upregulation of autophagy in non-hepatocytes as stellate cells may stimulate fibrogenesis and subsequently induce detrimental effects on the liver. The autophagic response of other non-hepatocytes as macrophages and endothelial cells is unknown yet and needs to be investigated as these cells play important roles in ethanol-induced hepatic steatosis and damage. Selective pharmacological stimulation of autophagy in hepatocytes may be of therapeutic importance in alcoholic liver disease.
authors.affiliation: Nabil Eid, Yuko Ito, Yoshinori Otsuki, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Division of Life Sciences, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eid
authors.affiliation: Nabil Eid, Yuko Ito, Yoshinori Otsuki, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Division of Life Sciences, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Nabil Eid, Yuko Ito, Yoshinori Otsuki, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Division of Life Sciences, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Otsuki
keywords: Alcohol; Autophagy; Hepatocytes; Lipophagy; Macrophages; Mitophagy; Stellate cells