We previously reported that circulating plasma levels of PAI-1 are associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) in two different cohorts of patients (surgical intra-abdominal sepsis patients and heterogeneous critically ill patients with sepsis-associated AKI) (Zwischenberger et al., 2021) and in mice with cecal-slurry induced sepsis (Bruno et al., 2022). The gene discussed is SERPINE1; the disease is acute kidney injury.