Complement C3 and Autophagy Keep the β Cell Alive.

Autophagy prevents pancreatic β cell death during obesity, although the mechanism of autophagy activation in the β cell has remained elusive. In this issue of Cell Metabolism, King et al. (2018) show that intracellular complement component C3 interacts with autophagy protein ATG16L1 and protects against β cell death by stimulating autophagy.