Tight association of autophagy and cell cycle in leukemia cells.

Background: Autophagy plays an essential role in maintaining cellular homeostasis and in the response to cellular stress. Autophagy is also involved in cell cycle progression, yet the relationship between these processes is not clearly defined.

Results: In exploring this relationship, we observed that the inhibition of autophagy impaired the G2/M phase-arresting activity of etoposide but enhanced the G1 phase-arresting activity of palbociclib.