In this study, we found that JLP downregulation was associated with the renal fibrosis in both mouse UUO model and advanced CKD patients (Fig. 3), and JLP expression enable TECs resistant against TGF-β1 induced fibrotic effects on ECM production, EMT, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, as well as autophagy (schematic illustrated in Supplementary Fig. 6). Here, SPAG9 is linked to renal fibrosis.