Autophagy in innate and adaptive immunity.

Autophagy (self-eating) is an evolutionary conserved simple process by which cells target their own cellular organelles and long-lived proteins for degradation. Recently, this simple ancient process has proved to be involved in many biological aspects, including host defense, cell survival and death, innate and adaptive immunity, and cancer. The implications of aberrant regulation of autophagy in human diseases are just beginning to unravel. This is a brief review of recent progress in the association of autophagy with innate and adaptive immunity relevant to lung biology and disease.