HDAC8 and acute kidney injury: In this study, we revealed that HDAC8 activation contributes to AKI as evidenced by the following observations: (1) inhibition of HDAC8 with PCI‐34051 alleviated cisplatin‐induced tubular cell injury and apoptosis in mice; (2) PCI‐34051 was effective in inhibiting apoptosis in cultured renal epithelial cells exposed to cisplatin; and (3) siRNA‐mediated silencing of HDAC8 suppressed while HDAC8 overexpression enhanced cisplatin‐induced apoptosis of renal epithelial cells in culture.