Autophagy is an ancient housekeeping mechanism which controls the cellular homeostasis by facilitating the removal of misfolded proteins and dysfunctional organelles, e.g. mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum, for degradation in lysosomal system [39,40]. There are three pathways which can deliver cytoplasmic material for autophagic degradation, i.e. macro- and microautophagy as well as chaperone-mediated autophagy. Macroautophagy, segregating organelles like mitochondria, is the major type of autophagy associated with innate immunity [41,42] and it is hereafter shortly called “autophagy”. In addition to the cleansing function, autophagy can regulate cellular energy balance, e.g. during starvation it can trigger energy production from its own components [43]. Autophagy may also be involved in lipid metabolism by sequestering lipid droplets [44]. In conjunction with this increased knowledge on inflammasomes, the role of autophagy in the regulation of inflammatory responses has started to emerge.
