• A normal process in which a cell destroys proteins and other substances in its cytoplasm (the fluid inside the cell membrane but outside the nucleus), which may lead to cell death. Autophagy may prevent normal cells from developing into cancer cells, but it may also protect cancer cells by destroying anticancer drugs or substances taken up by them.
  NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• Autophagy is a biological process that involves the lysosomal degradation of intracellular components using it a cell's own machinery. This process can play a role in cellular defense, embryonic development, and cell growth.
  NCI
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• Segregation of part of the cell's own cytoplasmic material within a membrane and its digestion after fusion of the segregated vacuole with a lysosome.
  CRISP Thesaurus
  National Institutes of Health, 2006
• The cellular catabolic process in which cells digest cellular materials, such as organelles and other macromolecular constituents, or non-self materials such as intracellular pathogens. Autophagy serves to provide essential nutrients under conditions of cellular stress; or can remodel intracellular structures during cell differentiation.
  Gene Ontology Dictionary
  Gene Ontology Consortium, 2021
• The segregation and degradation of various cytoplasmic constituents via engulfment by MULTIVESICULAR BODIES; VACUOLES; or AUTOPHAGOSOMES and their digestion by LYSOSOMES. It plays an important role in BIOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS and in the removal of bone by OSTEOCLASTS. Defective autophagy is associated with various diseases, including NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES and cancer.
  NLM Medical Subject Headings
  U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025