Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2026, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (6): 1516-1526.doi: 10.12307/2026.584

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Macrophage autophagy in lung diseases: two-sided effects

You Huijuan1, Wu Shuzhen1, 2, Rong Rong1, Chen Liyuan1, Zhao Yuqing1, Wang Qinglu1, Ou Xiaowei1, Yang Fengying1   

  1. 1School of Sports and Health, Shandong Sport University, Jinan 250102, Shandong Province, China; 2Rehabilitation Hospital, Linyi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Linyi 276000, Shandong Province, China
  • Received:2025-01-25 Accepted:2025-03-14 Online:2026-02-28 Published:2025-07-17
  • Contact: Yang Fengying, MD, School of Sports and Health, Shandong Sport University, Jinan 250102, Shandong Province, China
  • About author:You Huijuan, Master candidate, School of Sports and Health, Shandong Sport University, Jinan 250102, Shandong Province, China
  • Supported by:
    Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. ZR2022MH163 (to YFY); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Foundation), No. 81601962 (to YFY)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Macrophages play a key role in the occurrence and progression of lung diseases, and autophagy plays an important role in maintaining environmental homeostasis and functional stability in macrophages. It has been suggested that macrophage autophagic activity has two sides in lung inflammatory diseases.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the relationship between macrophage autophagy and lung diseases, thereby providing reference for exploring the prevention and treatment strategies of lung inflammatory diseases by targeting macrophage autophagy.
METHODS: Literature retrieval was performed in CNKI and PubMed for relevant literature published from database inception to September 2024. The search terms were “macrophage autophagy, efferocytosis, macrophage polarization, acute lung injury, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma” in Chinese and English, respectively. The search results were included or excluded based on the selection criteria, and 100 papers that met the criteria were finally included in the review. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The obstruction of autophagy flow will induce the polarization imbalance of macrophages and impair their efferocytosis, resulting in the increase of M1 macrophages and aggravating inflammation. (2) The judgment of autophagic activity should be based on whether the autophagy flow is smooth or not, and it is essential to evaluate the degradation ability of autophagy. Some studies failed to comprehensively detect the degradation ability of autophagy lysosomes to assess whether the autophagy flow is unobtrusive. As a result, the so-called two-sided view of pulmonary macrophage autophagy in pulmonary inflammatory diseases in such studies is actually related to the one-sided judgment of autophagy activity. (3) The pathological manifestations vary across different pulmonary diseases and even at different stages of the same disease. Activation of macrophage autophagy plays a positive role in regulating pulmonary inflammatory homeostasis in conditions such as acute lung injury, infectious pneumonia, mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, early-stage pulmonary fibrosis, and secondary asthma. However, in the severe fibrotic stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the progressive stage of pulmonary fibrosis, the activation of pulmonary macrophage autophagy aggravates pulmonary fibrosis, reflecting the dual nature of macrophage autophagy. In allergic asthma, autophagy is activated in lung-resident macrophages but suppressed in infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages from circulation. The former is closely related to airway stenosis, and the latter aggravates pneumonia disorders. Therefore, identifying the types and progression stages of lung diseases, along with accurately assessing autophagic activity, is crucial for future investigations into the relationship between macrophage autophagy and disease pathogenesis, thereby facilitating the development of therapeutic strategies in the future.

Key words: autophagy, macrophage, exocytosis, macrophage polarization, lung diseases, inflammation

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