Interestingly and importantly, rapamycin improved tubular damage, better preserved renal function and decreased NGAL expression in the kidney of AKI mice; whereas Baf A1 had opposite effect (Fig 8A–8C, and S5 Fig), further indicating that CRP-worsened kidney dysfunction and histological alteration in IRI model is associated with down-regulation of autophagy in the kidney. This evidence concerns the gene CRP and acute kidney injury.