autophagy
Meaning of autophagy: Autophagy is the cell's built-in recycling process that clears damaged components and helps it survive periods of stress or limited nutrients.
Definition of autophagy
Autophagy is a normal, tightly regulated process in which a cell breaks down and recycles its own damaged proteins and worn out internal structures, delivering them to a compartment called the lysosome for degradation. The products of this breakdown can then be reused to build new cellular components or generate energy.
Autophagy increases when a cell faces stress, such as limited nutrients, and it also plays an ongoing role in routine quality control by clearing damaged material before it can accumulate and impair normal cell function. This process is thought to contribute to how cells adapt to aging and other forms of stress over time.
Autophagy has a complicated relationship with cancer. In some settings it can help prevent early cancer development by removing damaged cellular components before they cause harm, while an already established tumor can use the same process to survive stressful conditions, including some cancer treatments, which is why autophagy remains an active area of research.
How autophagy is built
- auto- Prefix · Greek self, own
- -phagia, -phagy Suffix · Greek eating, swallowing
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
Laboratory research examined how autophagy influenced the tumor cells' response to treatment.
Good to know
Autophagy can work for or against a tumor depending on the stage of disease, helping prevent early cancer development in normal cells while sometimes helping an established tumor survive treatment.
Word origin
Where “autophagy” comes from
Formed from Greek autos, meaning self, and phagein, meaning to eat.