Autophagy in the physiological endometrium and cancer

Abstract

Autophagy is a highly conserved catabolic process and a major cellular pathway for the degradation of long-lived proteins and cytoplasmic organelles. An increasing body of evidence has unveiled autophagy as an indispensable biological function that helps to maintain normal tissue homeostasis and metabolic fitness that can also lead to severe consequences for the normal cellular functioning when altered. Recent accumulating data point to autophagy as a key player in a wide variety of physiological and pathophysiological conditions in the human endometrium, one of the most proficient self-regenerating tissues in the human body and an instrumental player in placental species reproductive function. The current review highlights the most recent findings regarding the process of autophagy in the normal and cancerous endometrial tissue. Current research efforts aiming to therapeutically exploit autophagy and the methodological approaches used are discussed.

This study has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) through the projects PI18/00795, CP17/00063 and MS17/00063 (Cofunded by European Regional Development Fund. ERDF, a way to build Europe) and by the AECC Scientific Foundation (FC_AECC #LABAE19004LLOB). We also want to thank CERCA Programme/ Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. DLN and NE are recipients of a Miguel Servet scheme; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España (ES).