autophagy

thumb|right|A Diagram of the process of autophagy, which produces the structures autophagosomes (AP), and [[autolysosomes (AL)B Electron micrograph of autophagic structures AP and AL in the fat body of a fruit fly larvaC Fluorescently labeled autophagosomes AP in liver cells of starved mice]]

Autophagy (or autophagocytosis; from the Greek , , meaning "self-devouring" and , , meaning "hollow") is the natural, conserved degradation of a biological cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components through a lysosome-dependent regulated mechanism. It allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components. Although initially characterized as a primordial degradation pathway induced to protect against starvation, it has become increasingly clear that autophagy also plays a major role in the homeostasis of non-starved cells. Defects in autophagy have been linked to various human diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer, and interest in modulating autophagy as a potential treatment for these diseases has grown rapidly.