Autophagic vacuole formation in mammalian skeletal muscle; role of FOXO proteins.

All cells in the body are regulated by a complex signalling cascade that responds to nutrients. When nutrient availability is low, a process known as autophagy, which provides the cell with endogenous nutrients, is initiated to allow the cell to survive. Up until now it was thought that autophagy is regulated by signalling pathways that controll growth. Recently, however, we showed that the transcription factor FOXO1 may be involved in this process and we aim to determine if this is the case. We expect to find that FOXO1 is a hierarchical regulator of autophagy and this is very significant because it may provide a useful target in developing therapies to treat illnesses where severe weight loss can occur, such as HIV Aids and Cancer.