Autophagy literally means 'to eat oneself'. It is the cells way of recycling cytoplasmic components to give the cell a bit of a spring clean and get rid of any old or damaged proteins and organelles. As well as this homeostatic 'spring cleaning' role, autophagy can be upregulated in times of stress such as starvation to provide a source of amino acids. Autophagy can also act as a cell survival mechanism and a route to cell death depending on the circumstances.