Abstract:Autophagy is a basic metabolic progress that is essential for cell survival and tissue homeostasis. Autophagy formation includes four stages such as initiation, elongation, maturation and termination. Autophagy can be regulated by many intracellular or extracellular stimuli and participates in many cellular activities such as cell cycle, cell proliferation, apoptosis, self-renewal of stem cells, iPS generation as well as eliminating invading pathogens. Meanwhile, many recent studies have illustrated that autophagy is involved in the lymphocyte development, regulation of innate immunity and adaptive immunity, indicating an essential role of autophagy in immune response. Elucidating the regulation mechanisms of autophagy in immune responses will provide new therapeutic strategy in prevention and treatment of infectious and immune diseases.