Figure 3.

The autophagy involvement in lipid droplets turnover. Autophagy plays a key role in lipid droplets (LDs) metabolism in hepatocytes. (A) Autophagy breaks LDs inside lysosomes in a process termed lipophagy. Lipophagy can prevent lipid accumulation in hepatocytes, while the inhibition of lipophagy promotes LDs accumulation, resulting in hepatocellular steatosis. (B) Lipolysis is a process mediated by three lipases: ATGL, HSL and MGL. ATGL controls the crosstalk between lipolysis and autophagy as it regulates TAG turnover. ATGL promotes lipophagy to facilitate LD catabolism leading to the generation of Free Fatty Acids (FFAs), which are broken down by the β-oxidation process.