Role of necroptosis and autophagy in the acute necrotizing pancreatitis

The acute pancreatitis can induce many acinar cells to death. The main type of acinar cells death includes apoptosis and necrosis, the ratio of which has close relationship with the severity of acute pancreatitis. More necrotic acinar cells than apoptotic ones are discovered in the experimental acute necrotic pancreatitis. A type of programmed cell necrosis named necroptosis was discovered and became increasingly noticed attention in recent years, and it is the same to acute pancreatitis. Autophagy which is also regarded as a type of cell death is impaired so that it aggravates the severity of acute pancreatitis, but it is controversial whether impaired autophagy can induce acinar cell death in acute pancreatitis like other disease. This review summarizes the knowledge about the necroptosis signal pathway and autophagy and theirs significance, and speculates the relevance between autophagy and necroptosis in the acute necrotic pancreatitis.