Lungs

Pathological mechanisms underlying many aspects of lung disease are incompletely understood. Attempts to identify such mechanisms have revealed an important, cell-specific role for autophagy in lung health and several lung pathologies. This chapter discusses the role of autophagy in lung development and maturation and several lung diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and interstitial lung diseases; lung infection and inflammation are also discussed. We also examine the dual role of autophagy and its contribution to cell fate decisions under these disease conditions. Finally, we discuss the current autophagy-based therapies for each of these lung diseases.