FIGURE 1: Illustration of the roles of autophagy and mitophagy in hepatocarcinogenesis. When autophagy or mitophagy is impaired, damaged mitochondria accumulate in the cell, resulting in increased oxidative stress and DNA damage and the initiation of hepatocarcinogenesis. At the same time, this impairment in autophagy or mitophagy induces the expression of p53, which is further activated by PINK1 to suppress the expression of NANOG and the production of CSCs. Consequently, the progression of benign hepatic tumors into HCC is inhibited. In contrast, when autophagy/mitophagy is enhanced, p53 is associated with mitochondria and subsequently degraded. This leads to the induction of NANOG and the expansion of CSCs to promote the development of HCC.