cells Review Role and Mechanisms of Mitophagy in Liver Diseases Xiaowen Ma 1, Tara McKeen 1, Jianhua Zhang 2 and Wen-Xing Ding 1,* 1 Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, KS 66160, USA;
[email protected] (X.M.);
[email protected] (T.M.) 2 Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular Cellular Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 901 19th street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-913-588-9813 Received: 13 February 2020; Accepted: 28 March 2020; Published: 31 March 2020 Abstract: The mitochondrion is an organelle that plays a vital role in the regulation of hepatic cellular redox, lipid metabolism, and cell death. Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with both acute and chronic liver diseases with emerging evidence indicating that mitophagy, a selective form of autophagy for damaged/excessive mitochondria, plays a key role in the liver’s physiology and pathophysiology. This review will focus on mitochondrial dynamics, mitophagy regulation, and their roles in various liver diseases (alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, drug-induced liver injury, hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury, viral hepatitis, and cancer) with the hope that a better understanding of the molecular events and signaling pathways in mitophagy regulation will help identify promising targets for the future treatment of liver diseases. Keywords: alcohol; autophagy; mitochondria; NAFLD; Parkin; Pink1 1. Introduction Autophagy (or macroautophagy) involves the formation of a double membrane structure called an autophagosome. Autophagosomes bring the enveloped cargoes to the lysosomes to form autolysosomes where the lysosomal enzymes consequently degrade the cargos [1,2].