Table 1.

Initiation and Function of Autophagy in Lymphocytes and TECs.

Function	Evidence	Ref.
Induction of autophagy in T cells	Autophagy induced through TCR stimulation cytokine stimulation, and serum withdrawal	9,10,14
Induction of autophagy in B cells	Autophagy induced through BCR stimulation, inhibited by CD28 costimulation	46,47
Autophagy in TEC’s	Autophagy is constitutively high in cTEC’s and mTEC’s	42
Autophagy functions as pro-survival	Atg5 and Atg7 deficient T lymphocytes, pre- and Immature B cells, and B-1 B cells succumb to apoptosis and have proliferation defects	9,10, 16,45
Autophagy functions as alternative death pathway	Autophagy contributes to RIPK, IFN-γ induced, BCR induced, and HIV envelope glycoprotein induced cell death	25,37, 46,28
Autophagy clears organelles and toxic metabolites	Atg5 and Atg7 deficient T lymphocytes have accumulated damage from excess mitochondria and ROS	16,17
Autophagy functions in T and B cell costimulation	Autophagy induced through the BCR helps B cell antigen presentation, which is necessary to obtain T cell help	46,47
Autophagy in TEC’s functions in T cell selection	Atg5 deficient cTEC’s and mTEC’s allow development of self-reactive T lymphocytes, colitis, and wasting disease	42,44