Autophagy is a degradation process in eukaryotic cells that recycles cellular components for nutrition supply under environmental stress and plays a double-edged role in development of major human diseases. Noninvasive optical imaging enables us to clearly visualize various classes of structures involved in autophagy at macroscopic and microscopic dynamic levels. In this review, we discuss important trends of emerging optical imaging technologies used to explore autophagy and provide insights into the mechanistic investigation and structural study of autophagy in mammalian cells. Some exciting new prospects and future research directions regarding optical imaging techniques in this field are also highlighted.

自噬是真核细胞的降解过程，可在环境压力下回收细胞成分以提供营养，并在人类主要疾病的发展中起着双重作用。无创光学成像使我们能够在宏观和微观动态水平下清晰地可视化自噬涉及的各种类别的结构。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了用于探索自噬的新兴光学成像技术的重要趋势，并对哺乳动物细胞中自噬的机理研究和结构研究提供了见识。还重点介绍了该领域中有关光学成像技术的一些令人振奋的新前景和未来的研究方向。