Autophagy: a decisive process for stemness

Mature skeletal muscle is a stable tissue imposing low homeostatic demand on its stem cells, which remain in a quiescent state in their niche over time. We have shown that these long-lived resting stem cells attenuate proteotoxicity and avoid senescence through basal autophagy. This protective clean-up system is lost during aging, resulting in stem cell regenerative decline. Thus, autophagy is required for muscle stem cell homeostasis maintenance.