Fibrosis occurs in most human organs including the liver, lung, heart and kidney, and is crucial for the progression of most chronic diseases. As an indispensable catabolic process for intracellular quality control and homeostasis, autophagy occurs in most mammalian cells and is implicated in many biological processes including fibrogenesis. Although advances have been made in understanding autophagy process, the potential role of autophagy in fibrotic diseases remains controversial and has recently attracted a great deal of attention. In the current review, we summarize the commonalities of autophagy affecting different types of fibrosis in different organs, including the liver, lung, heart, and kidney as well as in cystic fibrosis, systematically outline the contradictory results and highlight the distinct role of autophagy during the various stages of fibrosis. In summary, the exact role autophagy plays in fibrogenesis depends on specific cell types and different stimuli, and identifying and evaluating the pathogenic contribution of autophagy in fibrogenesis will promote the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies for the clinical management of these fibrotic diseases.

中文翻译：

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自食：朋友还是敌人？自噬在纤维化疾病中的新兴作用。

纤维化发生在包括肝，肺，心脏和肾脏在内的大多数人体器官中，对于大多数慢性疾病的进展至关重要。自噬是细胞内质量控制和体内稳态不可缺少的分解代谢过程，在大多数哺乳动物细胞中都发生自噬，并且自噬与包括纤维发生在内的许多生物学过程有关。尽管在理解自噬过程方面取得了进展，但是自噬在纤维化疾病中的潜在作用仍然存在争议，并且最近引起了很多关注。在当前的综述中，我们总结了影响不同器官（包括肝，肺，心脏和肾脏）以及囊性纤维化中不同类型纤维化的自噬的共性，系统地概述了矛盾的结果，并突出了自噬在纤维化各个阶段的独特作用。总之，自噬在纤维发生中的确切作用取决于特定的细胞类型和不同的刺激，并且鉴定和评估自噬在纤维发生中的致病作用将促进对这些纤维化疾病的临床管理的新治疗策略的发现。