Estrogen and estrogen receptors chauffeur the sex-biased autophagic action in liver.

ABSTRACT: Autophagy, or cellular self-digestion, is an essential cellular process imperative for energy homeostasis, development, differentiation, and survival. However, the intrinsic factors that bring about the sex-biased differences in liver autophagy are still unknown. In this work, we found that autophagic genes variably expresses in the steroidogenic tissues, mostly abundant in liver, and is influenced by the individual's sexuality. Starvation-induced autophagy in a time-dependent female-dominated manner, and upon starvation, a strong gender responsive circulating steroid-HK2 relation was observed, which highlighted the importance of estrogen in autophagy regulation. This was further confirmed by the enhanced or suppressed autophagy upon estrogen addition (male) or blockage (female), respectiv

SUBMITTER: Mohapatra S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7566502 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature