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Autophagy and lipids: tightening the knot

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Abstract

The degradation of intracellular components in lysosomes, also known as autophagy, participates in a broad range of cellular functions from cellular quality control to cellular remodeling or as mechanism of defense against cellular aggressors. In this review, we focus on the role of autophagy as an alternative source of cellular energy, particularly important when nutrients are scarce. Almost since the discovery of autophagy, it has been known that amino acids obtained through the breakdown of proteins in lysosomes are essential to maintaining the cellular energetic balance during starvation. However, it is only recently that the ability of autophagy to mobilize intracellular lipid stores as an additional source of energy has been described. Autophagy contributes thus to modulating the amount of cellular lipids and allows cells to adapt to lipogenic stimuli. Interestingly, this interplay between autophagy and lipid metabolism is bidirectional, as changes in the intracellular lipid content also contribute to modulating autophagic activity. In this review, we describe the recent findings on the contribution of autophagy to lipid metabolism in different tissues and the consequences that impairments in autophagy have on cellular physiology. In addition, we comment on the regulatory role that lipid molecules and their modifying enzymes play on different steps of the autophagic process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Susmita Kaushik and Ms. Samantha J. Orenstein for critically reviewing this manuscript. Work in our laboratory is supported by National Institute of Health grants from National Institute on Aging (AG021904, AG031782), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK041918), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS038370), a Glenn Foundation Award, and a Hirsch/Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award.

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  1. Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology and Institute for Aging Studies, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, NY, 10461, USA

    Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Navarro & Ana Maria Cuervo

  2. Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Chanin Building Room 504, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York, 10461, USA

    Ana Maria Cuervo

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  1. Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Navarro
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  2. Ana Maria Cuervo
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Correspondence to Ana Maria Cuervo.

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This article is published as part of the Special Issue on Autophagy

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Rodriguez-Navarro, J.A., Cuervo, A.M. Autophagy and lipids: tightening the knot. Semin Immunopathol 32, 343–353 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-010-0219-7

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