What is autophagy?

The term “autophagy” is made up of the Greek words for “self” (auto) and “eat” (phagein) and means the renewal of old cells.

As part of autophagy, the body uses old, damaged and no longer usable cells to build new, healthy cells from them. Autophagy is a type of garbage collection and recycling facility of the body.

In 2016, Japanese Yoshinori Ohsumi received a Nobel Prize for his research on autophagy.

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