Recent studies have reported that the loss of BNIP3 aggravated IR-induced AKI, while overexpression of BNIP3 not only reversed the reduction of mitophagy, but also alleviated renal injury, indicating that BNIP3-mediated mitophagy plays a protective role in AKI (Tang et al., 2019; Fu et al., 2020). Here, BNIP3 is linked to acute kidney injury.