Abstract:

Diabetic nephropathy is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus and lacks of effective treatment so far.As a lysosomedependent intracellular degradation pathway,autophagy removed abnormal proteins,aging organelles and macromolecule which involved in cells selfprotection.This article focused on the intrinsic renal cells,reviewed and summarized autophagys role in diabetic nephropathy on the basis of understanding the existing progress in this field at home and abroad,providing a hypothesis that autophagy is likely to become a potential prevention target of diabetic nephropathy.

Key words: diabetic nephropathy, autophagy, podocyte, tubular epithelial cell, epigenetic