Progress in research on autophagy in vascular aging-related diseases / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Aging begins in the early stages of life and is an irreversible process in which wide-ranging and gradual functional declines occur with age in various organs of the body.Vascular aging, as a part of the overall aging process, plays an important role in the occurrence and development of vascular senescence-related diseases.Autophagy maintains homeostasis of the intracellular environment via degradation of damaged, denatured, or senescent proteins and organelles.Studies have found that basal autophagy is critical in regulating normal vascular function.However, abnormal autophagy may contribute to vascular aging and diseases associated with it.The purpose of this paper is to review recent progress on autophagy in vascular aging and its related diseases.