Mechanical stress meets autophagy: potential implications for physiology and pathology

Changes in the mechanical environment are a universal challenge for cells, and mechanical cues regulate tissue structure and cell physiology throughout life. Autophagy is an important degradative pathway, fulfilling a wide range of roles in survival, homeostasis and adaptation. The two are connected, and in vitro, autophagy is rapidly induced in cells exposed to mechanical compression. In vivo, autophagy is also induced in several medically relevant circumstances that are also under mechanical stress such as bone and muscle homeostasis and tissue injury. The induction of autophagy has wide-ranging effects on cells. In this article, I propose that the autophagic response to mechanical stress is an important factor in a wide range of both physiological and pathological settings.