title: Intestinal Autophagy and Its Pharmacological Control in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
abstract: Intestinal mucosal barrier, mainly composed of the intestinal mucus layer and the epithelium, plays a critical role in nutrient absorption as well as protection from pathogenic microorganisms. It is widely acknowledged that the damage of intestinal mucosal barrier or the disturbance of microorganism balance in the intestinal tract contributes greatly to the pathogenesis and progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which mainly includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process that involves degradation of protein aggregates and damaged organelles for recycling. The roles of autophagy in the pathogenesis and progression of IBD have been increasingly studied. This present review mainly describes the roles of autophagy of Paneth cells, macrophages, and goblet cells in IBD, and finally, several potential therapeutic strategies for IBD taking advantage of autophagy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Second Military Medical University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Second Military Medical University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Bo-Zong
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Second Military Medical University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Zhe-Qi
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Second Military Medical University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Xiong-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Second Military Medical University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Paneth cell; autophagy; goblet cell; immune reaction; inflammatory bowel disease; macrophage