Autophagy is a highly conserved intracellular clearance pathway in which cytoplasmic contents are trafficked to the lysosome for degradation. Within neurons, it helps to remove damaged organelles and misfolded or aggregated proteins and has therefore been the subject of intense research in relation to neurodegenerative disease. However, far less is understood about the role of autophagy in other aspects of neuronal physiology. Here we review the literature on the role of autophagy in maintaining neuronal stem cells and in neuronal plasticity in adult life and we discuss how these contribute to structural and functional deficits observed in a range of human disorders.

中文翻译：

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神经元发育和可塑性中的自噬

自噬是一种高度保守的细胞内清除途径，其中细胞质内容物被运送到溶酶体进行降解。在神经元内，它有助于去除受损的细胞器和错误折叠或聚集的蛋白质，因此已成为与神经退行性疾病相关的深入研究的主题。然而，人们对自噬在神经元生理学其他方面的作用知之甚少。在这里，我们回顾了关于自噬在维持神经元干细胞和成年生活中神经元可塑性中的作用的文献，我们讨论了这些如何导致在一系列人类疾病中观察到的结构和功能缺陷。