Some remarks on the relationship between autophagy, cell aging, and cell proliferation restriction

In the review, the main types of autophagy (macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperonemediated autophagy) are shortly described. Data about the character of the influence of autophagy on the aging process and on the development of some neurodegenerative diseases in various organisms are analyzed. It is noted that this effect is usually (though not always) beneficial. Results of investigations of the phenomenon in experiments on mice, nematodes, fruit flies, bacteria, yeast, and cell cultures of higher organisms are considered. Obvious relationship between autophagy activation and cell proliferation restriction is emphasized. The latter, in our opinion, is the main cause of age-related accumulation of various defects (the most important of them is DNA damage) in cells and tissues, which leads to an increase in the death probability (i.e., to aging). It is concluded that studies of the role of autophagy in the aging process on the models of chronological aging in yeast or stationary phase aging of cell cultures could be considered as the most appropriate approach to the problem solution.