Liver ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury occurs during liver resection, liver transplantation, and hemorrhagic shock. The main mode of liver cell death after warm and/or cold liver I-R is necrosis, but other modes of cell death, as apoptosis and autophagy, are also involved. Autophagy is an intracellular self-digesting pathway responsible for removal of long-lived proteins, damaged organelles, a...

We previously demonstrated that baicalein could protect against liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in mice. The exact mechanism of baicalein remains poorly understood. Autophagy plays an important role in protecting against I/R injury. This study was designed to determine whether baicalein could protect against liver I/R injury via induction of autophagy in rats. Baicalein was intraperiton...

Autophagy is an intracellular pathway by which lysosomes degrade and recycle long-lived proteins and cellular organelles. The effects of ethanol on autophagy are complex but recent studies have shown that autophagy serves a protective function against ethanol-induced liver injury. Autophagy was found to also be protective against CYP2E1-dependent toxicity in vitro in HepG2 cells which express C...

Steatotic livers are more susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, which is ameliorated by ischemic preconditioning (IPC). Autophagy possesses protective action on liver I/R injury and declines in steatotic livers. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the increased susceptibility of steatotic livers to I/R injury was associated with defective hepatic autophagy, which c...

Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common clinical consequence of hepatic surgery, cardiogenic shock, and liver transplantation. A steatotic liver is particularly vulnerable to IRI, responding with extensive hepatocellular injury. Autophagy, a lysosomal pathway balancing cell survival and cell death, is engaged in IRI, although its role in IRI of a steatotic liver is unclear. The role of au...

Liver dysfunction is a common side effect associated with the treatment of dasatinib and its mechanism is poorly understood. Autophagy has been thought to be a potent survival or death factor for liver dysfunction, which may shed the light on a novel strategy for the intervention of hepatotoxicity caused by dasatinib. In this study, we show for the first time that autophagy is induced, which is...

Acute liver disease is characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress and necrosis, which can greatly influence the long term clinical outcome and lead to liver failure or cancer. Here, we initially demonstrated the beneficial role of caspase-9-dependent autophagy in acute liver injury. Treatment with caspase-9 inhibitor z-LEHD-FMK in HepG2 cells, AML12 cells and C57BL/b6N mice exacerbated CCl...

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved biological process that degrades intracellular proteins and organelles including damaged mitochondria through the formation of autophagosome. We have previously demonstrated that pharmacological induction of autophagy by rapamycin protects against acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury in mice. In contrast, in the present study, we found that mice wit...

Autophagy, a lysosomal catabolic pathway for long-lived proteins and damaged organelles, is crucial for cell homeostasis, and survival under stressful conditions. During starvation, autophagy is induced in numerous organisms ranging from yeast to mammals, and promotes survival by supplying nutrients and energy. In the early neonatal period, when transplacental nutrients supply is interrupted, s...

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently received increasing attention for cell-based therapy, especially in regenerative medicine. However, the low survival rate of these cells restricts their therapeutic applications. It is hypothesized that autophagy might play an important role in cellular homeostasis and survival. This study aims to investigate the regenerative potentia...