A utophagy is a complex intracellular process that delivers cytoplasmic constituents for degradation into lysosomes.1,2 Three main types of autophagy have been described: (1) microautophagy, comprising direct engulfment of cytoplasmic material by lysosomes via inward invaginations of the lysosomal membrane, (2) macroautophagy, characterized by formation of double-membrane sequestering compartments termed autophagosomes that fuse with lysosomes for delivery of cytoplasmic cargo, and (3) chaperone-mediated autophagy, mediated by a chaperone complex and lysosomal-associated membrane protein type 2A to degrade cytosolic proteins with a specific targeting motif. The term autophagy usually refers to macroautophagy, which is the most prevalent and beststudied form of autophagy. Also in this review, we will focus exclusively on macroautophagy, further cited as autophagy.Autophagy occurs at basal levels in most tissues to allow constitutive turnover of cytosolic components but is stimulated by environmental stress-related signals (eg, nutrient deprivation and oxidative injury) to recycle nutrients and to generate energy for maintenance of cell viability in unfavorable conditions.1 In addition to cellular stress, basal autophagy can be intensified by specific drugs, 3 indicating that the autophagic machinery is a potential therapeutic target for diverse diseases. Indeed, given that autophagy is involved in the prevention