In the present study we investigated the relationship of plasma-NGAL with prototypic markers of inflammation in different cohorts of patients, representing acute and chronic but also mild to severe inflammation with and without AKI, used in-vitro models to investigate cause and effect between plasma-NGAL and inflammation and, for confirmation, analyzed outcome of septic animals treated with recombinant Lipocalin-2. Here, LCN2 is linked to acute kidney injury.