LRNA9884, a novel SMAD3-dependent lncRNA, is not only involved into NF-κB-mediated inflammatory responses by activation of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in AKI, but also enhances diabetic renal injury via promoting MCP-1-dependent renal inflammation in db/db mice (Zhang et al., 2019b, 2020d; Xu et al., 2020a). Here, MIF is linked to acute kidney injury.