Motoni Kadowaki

TL;DR: These guidelines are presented for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes.

TL;DR: A set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of the methods that can be used by investigators who are attempting to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as by reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that investigate these processes are presented.

TL;DR: The results indicate that mTOR is not common to the signaling mechanisms of amino acids and insulin in autophagy, and that the amino acid signaling starts extracellularly with their “receptor(s),” probably other than transporters, and is mediated through a novel route distinct from the mTOR pathway employed by insulin.

TL;DR: Another line of evidence has emerged that protein kinase cascades such as mTOR, Erk, eIF2alpha etc. may be involved in the regulation of autophagy, and that amino acids, in combination with insulin, may exert their effects through these pathways.

TL;DR: Examining the cytosolic LC3 ratio is an easy and quick quantitative method for monitoring the regulation of this process in hepatocytes and H4-II-E cells.