Figure 1.

Mitophagy protects against alcohol-induced liver injury and steatosis. Alcohol initiates mitochondrial damage and dysfunction, which causes liver injury and steatosis. Mitophagy protects against liver injury and steatosis by removing these damaged and dysfunctional mitochondria, which maintains mitochondrial function and bioenergetics to avoid alcohol-induced cell death and liver injury. In addition, maintenance of a healthy mitochondria population by mitophagy allows for efficient β-oxidation, which reduces alcohol-induced liver steatosis. Two perpendicular lines represent “inhibition of”, and arrows represent “promotion of”.