Endocrine Abstracts

Host responses to critical illness, such as excessive inflammation and hyperglycemia, trigger detrimental chain reactions that damage cellular proteins and organelles. Such responses to illness contribute to the risk of non-resolving multiple organ dysfunction and adverse outcome. Autophagy is a bulk degradation pathway able to remove toxic protein aggregates and damaged organelles. Morphologically, both liver and muscle of critically ill patients reveal an autophagy-deficienc...