The interplay between autophagy and apoptosis in the diabetic heart

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is characterized by ventricular dysfunction that occurs in diabetic patients independent of coronary artery disease, hypertension, and any other cardiovascular diseases. Diabetic cardiomyopathy has become a major cause of diabetes-related mortality. Thus, an urgent need exists to clarify the mechanism of pathogenesis. Emerging evidence demonstrates that diabetes induces cardiomyocyte apoptosis and suppresses cardiac autophagy, indicating that the interplay between the autophagy and apoptotic cell death pathways is important in the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy. This review highlights recent advances in the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis and its importance in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Protein Quality Control, the Ubiquitin Proteasome System, and Autophagy”.