Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have the potential of self-replication and differentiation, are a very valuable cell source for stem cell-based medical therapy. Their application has opened up a new way for disease research. Although MSCs can maintain cell stemness through self-renewal, with the prolongation of cell passage and culture time, the stemness of MSCs gradually decays, and the cell aging and differentiation potential decreases gradually. Autophagy is a highly conserved cytological process that degrades the modified, excess, and deleterious cytoplasmic components in autophagosomes, which are then degraded by fusion with lysosomes. As the main intracellular degradation and recycling pathway, autophagy plays an active role in maintaining cell homeostasis, self-renewal and pluripotency. In this paper, the role of autophagy in self-renewal and maintenance of multidirectional differentiation potential of MSCs was reviewed, which laid a theoretical foundation and practical basis for the research and application of MSCs.
间充质干细胞（MSCs）具有自我复制和分化潜能，是基于干细胞的医学疗法的非常有价值的细胞来源，其应用开辟了发育和疾病研究的新途径。MSCs虽然可以通过自我更新维持细胞干性，但是，随着细胞多次传代和培养时间的延长，其干性逐渐衰减，细胞老化、分化潜能逐渐降低。自噬是一种高度保守的细胞学过程，即通过降解隔离在自噬体中的经修饰的、过剩的和有害的细胞质成分，之后自噬体与溶酶体融合而被降解。作为主要的细胞内降解和再循环途径，自噬对于维持细胞稳态、自我更新和多能性等方面具有积极作用。本文对自噬在对MSCs自我更新和多向分化潜能维持等方面作用的研究进行综述，为MSCs的研究和应用奠定理论基础和提供实践依据。.
Keywords: autophagy; differentiation; mesenchymal stem cell; self-renewal.