HMOX1 and diabetic kidney disease: Taken together, our findings are in general consistency with an earlier study by Vargas showing FGF1-mediated activation of antioxidants Nrf2 and HO-1 in astrocytes (Vargas et al. 2005), and two recent studies demonstrating the protective effect of FGF1 against diabetic nephropathies (Liang et al. 2018), and a mutant FGF1 with reduced mitogenic activity against the development of chronic kidney disease induced by either diabetic- or adriamycin-induced nephropathy via activation of downstream AMPK/GSK-3β/Nrf2 and suppression of the JNK/NF-κB, respectively (Wang et al. 2019).