Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy.

ABSTRACT: Disruption of autophagy--a key homeostatic process in which cytosolic components are degraded and recycled through lysosomes--can cause neurodegeneration in tissue culture and in vivo. Upregulation of this pathway may be neuroprotective, and much effort is being invested in developing drugs that cross the blood brain barrier and increase neuronal autophagy. One well-recognized way of inducing autophagy is by food restriction, which upregulates autophagy in many organs including the liver; but current dogma holds that the brain escapes this effect, perhaps because it is a metabolically privileged site. Here, we have re-evaluated this tenet using a novel approach that allows us to detect, enumerate and characterize autophagosomes in vivo. We first validate the approach by showing that it all

SUBMITTER: Alirezaei M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3106288 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature