Role of autophagy in aging: The good, the bad, and the ugly is a really good review into the function of autophagy (eating yourself) which is how cells tidy themselves up by getting rid of dysfunctional mitochondria and creating new ones. Autophagy is a good thing because it makes cells work better. That almost certainly ups the Acetyl-CoA levels in the nucleus which readers of this blog will know is a *Good Thing . [Incidentally if you have the time its worth reading all of the review] I will extract part of the review: Unfortunately, the protection afforded by autophagy is progressively erased with age. For instance, Atg5, Atg7, and Beclin 1 are down-regulated in the normal aging brain, whereas, in osteoarthritis, the levels of ULK1, Beclin 1, and LC3 fall (Rubinsztein et al., 2011). In hepatocytes of aged rats, alongside the increase in cytosolic Hsc70, and coordinate with decreased binding and lysosomal uptake of cargo, there is a significant rise in degradation and hence red...
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