Emerging Roles of Impaired Autophagy in Fatty Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Figure 1

Schematic model represents the overview of the autophagy process. Molecular regulation of the autophagic process in normal and starvation conditions is presented. In the presence of sufficient nutrients, activation of mTOR inhibits the ULK1 complex, whereas, under conditions of nutrient starvation, AMPK inhibits mTOR and activates the ULK1 and PI3KC3 complex leading to initiation of phagophore biosynthesis. During autophagosome maturation, cargo recruitment takes place through the recruitment of ATGs and LC3, and mature autophagosome formation occurs. Ultimately, the autophagosome fuses with a lysosome, facilitated by Rab7 and LAMP proteins. The fully functional autolysosome then degrades the autolysosomal cargo and releases the degradation products into the cytosol for recycling.