Abstract

Dying cells often display a large-scale accumulation of autophagosomes and hence adopt a morphology called autophagic cell death. In many cases, it is agreed that this autophagic cell death is cell death with autophagy rather than cell death by autophagy. Here, we evaluate the accumulating body of literature that argues that cell death occurs by autophagy. We also list the caveats that must be considered when deciding whether or not autophagy is an important effector mechanism of cell death.

Author affiliations

1. Guido Kroemer is at the Institut Gustave Roussy, F-94805 Villejuif, France, Université Paris Sud, Paris 11, F-94805 Villejuif, France and INSERM, U848, F-94805 Villejuif, France.
2. Beth Levine is at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA.

Correspondence to: Guido Kroemer¹ Email: kroemer@igr.fr

Published online 30 October 2008

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