Autophagy promotes visceral aging in wild-type C. elegans.

A plethora of studies over several decades has demonstrated the importance of autophagy in aging and age-related neurodegenerative disease. The role of autophagy in damage clearance and cell survival is well established, and supports a prevailing view that increasing autophagic activity can be broadly beneficial, and could form the basis of anti-aging interventions. However, macroautophagy/autophagy also promotes some elements of senescence. For example, in C. elegans hermaphrodites it facilitates conversion of intestinal biomass into yolk, leading to sex-specific gut atrophy and senescent steatosis.