Progress in researches on autophagic cell death and its relationship with apoptosis and necrosis

Autophagy is a highly regulated intracellular degradative process by which cells remove cytosolic long-lived proteins and damaged organelles.Although autophagy is regarded as a regular degradative process maintaining cellular homeostasis,this process also represents one mode of programmed cell death.Although there are significant differences between autophagic cell death,apoptosis and necrosis in the metabolic and morphologic changes,it is revealed that there are extensive crosstalks in autophagic cell death,apoptosis and necrosis.Therefore,it is important to investigate the relationship obetween autophagy,apoptosis and necrosis to provide clues for effective prevention and treatment of relevant diseases.