ATG5 and Hepatic fibrosis: In contrast with Atg5 knockdown results from Cassidy 12, Ni et al. generated liver-specific Atg5 KO (L-Atg5 KO) mice, L-Atg5/mTOR, and L-Atg5/Raptor double knockout (DKO) mice and further found that L-Atg5/mTOR DKO and L-Atg5/Raptor DKO mice had increased hepatic inflammation and fibrosis at 6 months of age and even developed liver tumors at 9 months of age, suggesting the importance of autophagy in the progression of liver fibrosis 43.