Autophagy: An evolutionarily conserved process in the maintenance of stem cells and aging

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that degrades and recycles defective organelles, toxic proteins, and various other aggregates on the cytoplasmic surface by sequestering them into autophagosomes which, then, fuse with lysosomes which degrade them. If these aggregates are not cleared, they accumulate and damage the cell resulting in cellular senescence and aging. Stem cells, with their capacity to differentiate, are crucial for tissue homeostasis. In addition to differentiation, the stemness of stem cells must be preserved. Recent studies in stem cells show the importance of autophagy in evading cellular senescence. In this review, we describe the conservative nature of the autophagy process, carried out throughout evolution. In particular, we highlight the role of autophagy in various evolutionarily diverse species and how it evolved to maintain tissue homeostasis and regulate aging and cellular senescence in stem cells.     

Autophagy is a key factor in maintaining the regenerative capacity of muscle stem cells by promoting quiescence and preventing senescence

Autophagy, a highly regulated cellular degradation and recycling process, can occur constitutively at a basal level, and plays an essential role in many aspects of cell physiology. A recently published study (see the related punctum in Autophagy, Vol. 12, No. 4) suggests that basal autophagy is also important for maintaining the regenerative capacity of muscle stem cells, and that the decline of autophagy with aging is the cause of entry into senescence from quiescence in satellite cells.     

自噬在发育及干细胞中的作用

自噬是亚细胞膜结构发生动态变化并经溶酶体介导的细胞内蛋白质和细胞器降解的过程。通过平衡细胞内的合成和分解代谢,自噬可以维持细胞内环境稳态。干细胞是具有自我更新能力和多向分化潜能的细胞,对组织器官再生和维持组织稳态有重要作用。近年的研究表明,自噬在维持干细胞功能方面有非常重要的作用,本文综述了自噬的形成过程和分子机制及其在发育及干细胞中的作用。     

Dysfunctional autophagy is a driver of muscle stem cell functional decline with aging

Regeneration of skeletal muscle relies on its resident stem cells, also known as satellite cells, which are normally quiescent. With aging, satellite cell quiescence is lost concomitant with a muscle regenerative decline. Here we demonstrate that autophagy sustains quiescence over time and that its failure with age drives senescence, which accounts for stem cell loss of function. Pharmacological and genetic reestablishment of autophagy restores homeostasis and regenerative functions in geriatric satellite cells, which has relevance for the elderly population.     

Autophagy in stem cells

Autophagy is a highly conserved cellular process by which cytoplasmic components are sequestered in autophagosomes and delivered to lysosomes for degradation. As a major intracellular degradation and recycling pathway, autophagy is crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis as well as remodeling during normal development, and dysfunctions in autophagy have been associated with a variety of pathologies including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and neurodegenerative disease. Stem cells are unique in their ability to self-renew and differentiate into various cells in the body, which are important in development, tissue renewal and a range of disease processes. Therefore, it is predicted that autophagy would be crucial for the quality control mechanisms and maintenance of cellular homeostasis in various stem cells given their relatively long life in the organisms. In contrast to the extensive body of knowledge available for somatic cells, the role of autophagy in the maintenance and function of stem cells is only beginning to be revealed as a result of recent studies. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the current understanding of the mechanisms and regulation of autophagy in embryonic stem cells, several tissue stem cells (particularly hematopoietic stem cells), as well as a number of cancer stem cells. We discuss how recent studies of different knockout mice models have defined the roles of various autophagy genes and related pathways in the regulation of the maintenance, expansion and differentiation of various stem cells. We also highlight the many unanswered questions that will help to drive further research at the intersection of autophagy and stem cell biology in the near future.     

Increased Arf/p53 activity in stem cells,aging and cancer

Arf/p53 pathway protects the cells against DNA damage induced by acute stress. This characteristic is the responsible for its tumor suppressor activity. Moreover, it regulates the chronic type of stress associated with aging. This is the basis of its anti‐aging activity. Indeed, increased gene dosage of Arf/p53 displays elongated longevity and delayed aging. At a cellular level, it has been recently shown that increased dosage of Arf/p53 delays age‐associated stem cell exhaustion and the subsequent decline in tissue homeostasis and regeneration. However, p53 can also promote aging if constitutively activated. In this context, p53 reduces tissue regeneration, which correlates with premature exhaustion of stem cells. We discuss here the current evidence linking the Arf/p53 pathway to the processes of aging and cancer through stem cell regulation.     

Adult Sox2+ stem cell exhaustion in mice results in cellular senescence and premature aging

Aging is characterized by a gradual functional decline of tissues with age. Adult stem and progenitor cells are responsible for tissue maintenance, repair, and regeneration, but during aging, this population of cells is decreased or its activity is reduced, compromising tissue integrity and causing pathologies that increase vulnerability, and ultimately lead to death. The causes of stem cell exhaustion during aging are not clear, and whether a reduction in stem cell function is a cause or a consequence of aging remains unresolved. Here, we took advantage of a mouse model of induced adult Sox2+ stem cell depletion to address whether accelerated stem cell depletion can promote premature aging. After a short period of partial repetitive depletion of this adult stem cell population in mice, we observed increased kyphosis and hair graying, and reduced fat mass, all of them signs of premature aging. It is interesting that cellular senescence was identified in kidney after this partial repetitive Sox2+ cell depletion. To confirm these observations, we performed a prolonged protocol of partial repetitive depletion of Sox2+ cells, forcing regeneration from the remaining Sox2+ cells, thereby causing their exhaustion. Senescence specific staining and the analysis of the expression of genetic markers clearly corroborated that adult stem cell exhaustion can lead to cellular senescence induction and premature aging.     

Autophagy and cancer

Autophagy is a homeostatic and evolutionarily conserved mechanism of self-digestion by which the cells degrade and recycle long-lived proteins and excess or damaged organelles.Autophagy is activated in response to both physiological and pathological stimuli including growth factor depletion,energy deficiency or the upregulation of Bcl-2 protein expression.A novel role of autophagy in various cancers has been proposed.Interestingly,evidence that supports both a positive and negative role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of cancer has been reported.As a tumor suppression mechanism,autophagy maintains genome stability,induces senescence and possibly autophagic cell death.On the other hand,autophagy participates in tumor growth and maintenance by supplying metabolic substrate,limiting oxidative stress,and maintaining cancer stem cell population.It has been proposed that the differential roles of autophagy in cancer are disease type and stage specific.In addition,substrate selectivity might be involved in carrying out the specific effect of autophagy in cancer,and represents one of the potential directions for future studies.     

The role of autophagy in the metabolism and differentiation of stem cells

Autophagy is a very well-coordinated intracellular process that maintains cellular homeostasis under basal conditions by removing unnecessary or dysfunctional components through orderly degradation and recycling. Under pathological conditions, defects in autophagy have been linked to various human disorders, including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. The role of autophagy in stem cell proliferation, differentiation, self-renewal, and senescence is well documented. Additionally, cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in tumorigenesis, metastasis and tumor relapse and several studies have suggested the involvement of autophagy in the maintenance and invasiveness of CSCs. Hence, considering the modulation of autophagy in normal and cancer stems cells as a therapeutic approach can lead to the development or improvement of regenerative and anti-cancer therapies. Accordingly, modulation of autophagy can be regarded as a target for stem cell-based therapy of diseases with abnormal levels of autophagy.This article is focused on understanding the role of autophagy in stem cell homeostasis with an emphasis on the therapeutic potential of targeting autophagy for future therapies.     

The double-edged effect of autophagy in pancreatic beta cells and diabetes

Autophagy is an intracellular catabolic system, which enables cells to capture cytoplasmic components for degradation within lysosomes. Autophagy is involved in development, differentiation and tissue remodeling in various organisms, and is also implicated in certain diseases. Recent studies demonstrate that autophagy is necessary to maintain architecture and function of pancreatic beta cells. Altered autophagy is also involved in pancreatic beta cell death. Whether autophagy plays a protective or harmful role in diabetes is still not clear. In this review, we will summarize the current knowledge about the role of autophagy in pancreatic beta cell and diabetes.     

Autophagy in human embryonic stem cells

Autophagy (macroautophagy) is a degradative process that involves the sequestration of cytosolic material including organelles into double membrane vesicles termed autophagosomes for delivery to the lysosome. Autophagy is essential for preimplantation development of mouse embryos and cavitation of embryoid bodies. The precise roles of autophagy during early human embryonic development, remain however largely uncharacterized. Since human embryonic stem cells constitute a unique model system to study early human embryogenesis we investigated the occurrence of autophagy in human embryonic stem cells. We have, using lentiviral transduction, established multiple human embryonic stem cell lines that stably express GFP-LC3, a fluorescent marker for the autophagosome. Each cell line displays both a normal karyotype and pluripotency as indicated by the presence of cell types representative of the three germlayers in derived teratomas. GFP expression and labelling of autophagosomes is retained after differentiation. Baseline levels of autophagy detected in cultured undifferentiated hESC were increased or decreased in the presence of rapamycin and wortmannin, respectively. Interestingly, autophagy was upregulated in hESCs induced to undergo differentiation by treatment with type I TGF-beta receptor inhibitor SB431542 or removal of MEF secreted maintenance factors. In conclusion we have established hESCs capable of reporting macroautophagy and identify a novel link between autophagy and early differentiation events in hESC.     

Yeast chronological lifespan and proteotoxic stress: is autophagy good or bad?

Autophagy, a highly conserved proteolytic mechanism of quality control, is essential for the maintenance of metabolic and cellular homoeostasis and for an efficient cellular response to stress. Autophagy declines with aging and is believed to contribute to different aspects of the aging phenotype. The nutrient-sensing pathways PKA (protein kinase A), Sch9 and TOR (target of rapamycin), involved in the regulation of yeast lifespan, also converge on a common targeted process: autophagy. The molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of autophagy and aging by these signalling pathways in yeast, with special attention to the TOR pathway, are discussed in the present paper. The question of whether or not autophagy could contribute to yeast cell death occurring during CLS (chronological lifespan) is discussed in the light of our findings obtained after autophagy activation promoted by proteotoxic stress. Autophagy progressively increases in cells expressing the aggregation-prone protein α-synuclein and seems to participate in the early cell death and shortening of CLS under these conditions, highlighting that autophagic activity should be maintained below physiological levels to exert its promising anti-aging effects.     

Molecular modulation of autophagy: New venture to target resistant cancer stem cells

Autophagy is a highly regulated catabolic process in which superfluous,damaged organelles and other cytoplasmic constituents are delivered to the lysosome for clearance and the generation of macromolecule substrates during basal or stressed conditions. Autophagy is a bimodal process with a context dependent role in the initiation and the development of cancers. For instance,autophagy provides an adaptive response to cancer stem cells to survive metabolic stresses, by influencing disease propagation via modulation of essential signaling pathways or by promoting resistance to chemotherapeutics. Autophagy has been implicated in a cross talk with apoptosis. Understanding the complex interactions provides an opportunity to improve cancer therapy and the clinical outcome for the cancer patients. In this review, we provide a comprehensive view on the current knowledge on autophagy and its role in cancer cells with a particular focus on cancer stem cell homeostasis.     

The role of autophagy during coxsackievirus infection of neural progenitor and stem cells

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) has previously been shown to utilize autophagy in an advantageous manner during the course of infection of the host cell. However, few studies have determined whether stem cells induce autophagy in a similar fashion, and whether virus-induced autophagy occurs following infection of stem cells. Therefore, we compared the induction of autophagy following CVB3 infection of neural progenitor and stem cells (NPSCs), which we have recently shown to be highly susceptible to CVB3 infection, to HL-1 cells, a transformed cardiomyocyte cell line. As previously demonstrated for other susceptible host cells, HL-1 cells showed an increase in the activity of autophagic signaling following infection with a CVB3 expressing dsRed protein (dsRed-CVB3). Furthermore, viral titers in HL-1 cells increased in the presence of an inducer of autophagy (CCPA), while viral titers decreased in the presence of an inhibitor of autophagy (3-MA). In contrast, no change in autophagic signaling was seen in NPSCs following infection with dsRed-CVB3. Also, basal levels of autophagy in NPSCs were found to be highly elevated in comparison to HL-1 cells. Autophagy could be induced in NPSCs in the presence of rapamycin without altering levels of dsRed-CVB3 replication. In differentiated NPSC precursors, autophagy was activated during the differentiation process, and a decrease in autophagic signaling was observed within all three CNS lineages following dsRed-CVB3 infection. Hence, we conclude that the role of autophagy in modulating CVB3 replication appears cell type-specific, and stem cells may uniquely regulate autophagy in response to infection.     

The role of autophagy during coxsackievirus infection of neural progenitor and stem cells

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) has previously been shown to utilize autophagy in an advantageous manner during the course of infection of the host cell. However, few studies have determined whether stem cells induce autophagy in a similar fashion, and whether virus-induced autophagy occurs following infection of stem cells. Therefore, we compared the induction of autophagy following CVB3 infection of neural progenitor and stem cells (NPSCs), which we have recently shown to be highly susceptible to CVB3 infection, to HL-1 cells, a transformed cardiomyocyte cell line. As previously demonstrated for other susceptible host cells, HL-1 cells showed an increase in the activity of autophagic signaling following infection with a CVB3 expressing dsRed protein (dsRed-CVB3). Furthermore, viral titers in HL-1 cells increased in the presence of an inducer of autophagy (CCPA), while viral titers decreased in the presence of an inhibitor of autophagy (3-MA). In contrast, no change in autophagic signaling was seen in NPSCs following infection with dsRed-CVB3. Also, basal levels of autophagy in NPSCs were found to be highly elevated in comparison to HL-1 cells. Autophagy could be induced in NPSCs in the presence of rapamycin without altering levels of dsRed-CVB3 replication. In differentiated NPSC precursors, autophagy was activated during the differentiation process, and a decrease in autophagic signaling was observed within all three CNS lineages following dsRed-CVB3 infection. Hence, we conclude that the role of autophagy in modulating CVB3 replication appears cell type-specific, and stem cells may uniquely regulate autophagy in response to infection.     

Diurnal rhythms of autophagy: implications for cell biology and human disease

Autophagy is a key mechanism for cell survival under conditions of nutrient limitation. On the organismal level, autophagy is essential for survival of lower eukaryotes during extended periods of starvation, and it is induced in mammals during short-term starvation. As a consequence of the induction of autophagy during short periods of fasting, animals experience diurnal rhythms of autophagy in concert with their circadian cycle. Autophagy has also been identified as a component of the metabolic cycle of yeast, an ultradian rhythm that bears many similarities to the circadian rhythm of plants, flies and mammals. The circadian clock, which is present in almost all mammalian cell types studied to date, temporally regulates expression of multiple genes, gating cell processes such as nutrient uptake, glycolysis, and proliferation, to particular times of day. Whether the circadian clock directly regulates autophagy in mammalian cells, or whether autophagy may play a role in the cycling of mammalian cell clocks is not yet clear. Nevertheless, the relationship between circadian cycles and autophagy is an intriguing area for future study and has implications for multiple human diseases, including aging, neurodegeneration and cancer.     

Aging: A cell source limiting factor in tissue engineering

Tissue engineering has yet to reach its ideal goal, i.e. creating profitable off-the-shelf tissues and organs, designing scaffolds and three-dimensional tissue architectures that can maintain the blood supply, proper biomaterial selection, and identifying the most efficient cell source for use in cell therapy and tissue engineering. These are still the major challenges in this field. Regarding the identification of the most appropriate cell source, aging as a factor that affects both somatic and stem cells and limits their function and applications is a preventable and, at least to some extents, a reversible phenomenon. Here, we reviewed different stem cell types, namely embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and genetically modified stem cells, as well as their sources, i.e. autologous, allogeneic, and xenogeneic sources. Afterward, we approached aging by discussing the functional decline of aged stem cells and different intrinsic and extrinsic factors that are involved in stem cell aging including replicative senescence and Hayflick limit, autophagy, epigenetic changes, miRNAs, mTOR and AMPK pathways, and the role of mitochondria in stem cell senescence. Finally, various interventions for rejuvenation and geroprotection of stem cells are discussed. These interventions can be applied in cell therapy and tissue engineering methods to conquer aging as a limiting factor, both in original cell source and in the in vitro proliferated cells.     

Diurnal rhythms of autophagy: Implications for cell biology and human disease

Autophagy is a key mechanism for cell survival under conditions of nutrient limitation. On the organismal level, autophagy is essential for survival of lower eukaryotes during extended periods of starvation, and it is induced in mammals during short-term starvation. As a consequence of the induction of autophagy during short periods of fasting, animals experience diurnal rhythms of autophagy in concert with their circadian cycle. Autophagy has also been identified as a component of the metabolic cycle of yeast, an ultradian rhythm that bears many similarities to the circadian rhythm of plants, flies, and mammals. The circadian clock, which is present in almost all mammalian cell types studied to date, temporally regulates expression of multiple genes, gating cell processes such as nutrient uptake, glycolysis, and proliferation, to particular times of day. Whether the circadian clock directly regulates autophagy in mammalian cells, or whether autophagy may play a role in the cycling of mammalian cell clocks is not yet clear. Nevertheless, the relationship between circadian cycles and autophagy is an intriguing area for future study and has implications for multiple human diseases, including aging, neurodegeneration, and cancer.     

Retracted: HO-1 overexpression alleviates senescence by inducing autophagy via the mitochondrial route in human nucleus pulposus cells

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is closely associated with aging. Our previous studies have confirmed that heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) can inhibit nucleus pulposus (NP) cell apoptosis. However, whether or not HO-1 is involved in NP cell senescence and autophagy is unclear. Our results indicated that HO-1 expression was reduced in IDD tissues and replicative senescent NP cells. HO-1 overexpression using a lentiviral vector reduced the NP cell senescence level, protected mitochondrial function, and promoted NP cell autophagy through the mitochondrial pathway. Autophagy inhibitor 3-MA pretreatment reversed the anti-senescent and protective effects on the mitochondrial function of HO-1, which promoted the degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the intervertebral disc. In vivo, HO-1 overexpression inhibited IDD and enhanced autophagy. In summary, these results suggested that HO-1 overexpression alleviates NP cell senescence by inducing autophagy via the mitochondrial route.     

综述: 影响血管内皮细胞自噬的因素及其相关机制探讨

自噬对维持细胞自身的稳定及细胞成分更新、保持正常的生理状态起着至关重要的作用．机体在生理和病理过程中都存在自噬,基础状态下的自噬对细胞具有保护和修复作用,而自噬过度激活会引起细胞的损伤及死亡．近年来,对自噬的研究主要集中于肿瘤细胞,而对正常细胞的自噬研究较少．血管内皮细胞作为人体中最活跃的细胞之一,其功能变化与心血管疾病的发生和发展有密切相关．本文对影响血管内皮细胞自噬的因素及其相关机制进行综述．