Accumulating studies have found that SIRT2 plays an important role in the regulation of life activities such as aging, metabolism, apoptosis, cell differentiation, cell cycle, inflammation and tumorigenesis; however, SIRT2 plays controversial and multiple roles by deacetylating different substrates in diverse liver diseases, including alcoholic liver disease (ALD), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), liver fibrosis and hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury18–20. The gene discussed is SIRT2; the disease is ischemia.