Autophagic stress: A balancing act. Increased catabolic turnover is induced by increases in both AV formation and degradation (1). Depending upon the cell type, there may be transient accumulation of AVs, or even a transient decrease in basal AV/LC3-II levels in cells with a large degradative potential. Increased autophagy induction in cells that exceeds the degradative reserve of the cell (2), or basal levels of autophagy induction in cells with marked impairment of lysosomal delivery/degradation (3), leads to autophagic stress, accompanied by accumulation of AVs. Hypothetically, unchecked increases in autophagic proteolysis could also result in a form of autophagic stress (2). The potential consequences of autophagic stress include impaired recycling of essential cellular components, expenditure and depletion of energy/biosynthetic resources, or expansion of enzymatic compartments involved in amyloidogenic processing.