RESEARCH Autophagy involved in lipo d t

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleIntroduction Atherosclerosis is a chronic lipid metabolism disorder characterized by the deposition of excess lipids in large arteries. Macrophages take up excessive modified lipo-proteins, leading to the accumulation of intracellular cholesterol and triglycerides in the form of lipid drop-lets and the formation of foam cells, which appear to be a hallmark of the atherosclerosis [1,2]. Therefore, un-derstanding the potential mechanism of foam cell for-mation is critical for elucidating the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and treatment. Autophagy is a highly regulated intracellular degradation process that mediates the clearance of cytoplasmic pro-teins, certain pathogens and organelles [3]. When autoph-agy is initiated, double-membraned autophagosomes form randomly in the cytoplasm and eventually fuse with a lyso-some to form an autolysosome where the contents are de-graded and recycled for protein synthesis [4]. During th