Concise Commentary: The Benefits of Recycling—How Autophagy Regulation Affects Acute Pancreatitis

Excerpt

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is most commonly due to alcohol use, obstructing gallstones, or drugs. Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) describes a subset of AP complicated by highly morbid and fatal conditions that affect extrapancreatic organs such as the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and multiple organ failure (MOF) [1]. Recent studies have linked the etiology of AP to dysregulated autophagy, an important physiological process in which aged cellular structures and long-lived proteins are recycled and renewed in order to maintain cellular microecological balance and cell viability [2]. Abnormal autophagy has been implicated not only in pancreatic dysfunction and pancreatic inflammatory responses, but also in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. …