Although BNIP3 and BNIP3L have also been reported as mediators of cell death [35], the overlapping signalling pattern of autophagy markers, combined with the existing literature reporting mitophagy and increased BNIP3 and BNIP3L expression in skeletal muscle of experimental sepsis and pulmonary infection models [17–19, 22, 23], result in an expression pattern more indicative of mitophagy than apoptosis. Here, BNIP3 is linked to Sepsis.