In multicellular organisms, cell death is an essential aspect of life. Over the past decade, the spectrum of different forms of regulated cell death (RCD) has expanded dramatically with relevance in several pathologies such as inflam- matory and neurodegenerative diseases. This has been paralleled by the growing awareness of the central importance of autophagy as a stress response that influences decisions of cell life and cell death. Here, we first introduce criteria and methodologies for correct identification of the different RCD forms. We then discuss how the autophagy machinery is directly associ- ated with specific cell death forms and dissect the complex interactions between autophagy and apoptotic and necrotic cell death. This highlights how the balance of the relationship between other cell death pathways and autophagy presides over life and death in specific cellular contexts.
