Autophagy and Renal Fibrosis

Renal fibrosis is a common process of almost all the chronic kidney diseases progressing to end-stage kidney disease. As a highly conserved lysosomal protein degradation pathway, autophagy is responsible for degrading protein aggregates, damaged organelles or invading pathogens to maintain intracellular homeostasis. Growing evidence reveals that autophagy is involved in the progression of renal fibrosis, both in the tubulointerstitial compartment and in the glomeruli. Nevertheless, the specific role of autophagy in renal fibrosis has still not been fully understood. Therefore, in this review we will describe the characteristics of autophagy and summarize the recent advances in understanding the functions of autophagy in renal fibrosis. Moreover, the problem existing in this field and the possibility of autophagy as the potential therapeutic target for renal fibrosis have also been discussed.