Open AccessHepatic lipophagy: New insights into autophagic catabolism of lipid droplets in the liver
Author(s) -
Schulze Ryan J.,
Drižytė Kristina,
Casey Carol A.,
McNiven Mark A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
hepatology communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2471-254X
DOI - 10.1002/hep4.1056
Subject(s) - lipid droplet , autophagy , lipolysis , lipid metabolism , steatosis , catabolism , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , organelle , lipotoxicity , cirrhosis , medicine , biochemistry , endocrinology , metabolism , adipose tissue , insulin resistance , diabetes mellitus , apoptosis
The liver is a central fat‐storage organ, making it especially susceptible to steatosis as well as subsequent inflammation and cirrhosis. The mechanisms by which the liver mobilizes stored lipid for energy production, however, remain incompletely defined. The catabolic process of autophagy, a well‐known process of bulk cytoplasmic recycling and cellular self‐regeneration, is a central regulator of lipid metabolism in the liver. In the past decade, numerous studies have examined a selective form of autophagy that specifically targets a unique neutral lipid storage organelle, the lipid droplet, to better understand the function for this process in hepatocellular fatty acid metabolism. In the liver (and other oxidative tissues), this specialized pathway, lipophagy, likely plays as important a role in lipid turnover as conventional lipase‐driven lipolysis. In this review, we highlight several recent studies that have contributed to our understanding about the regulation and effects of hepatic lipophagy. ( Hepatology Communications 2017;1:359–369)