PINK1 and diabetes mellitus: However, it has been reported that the PINK1/Parkin pathway is upregulated and activated in the blood vessels of obese and DM mice (106) and that mitophagy activated by the c-Jun N-terminal kinase/p38 pathway will aggravate endothelial injury (107), which is contradictory to the above effects of activating mitophagy to protect the diabetic endothelial injury.