Moreover, the absence of Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19kDa interacting protein 3 (BNIP3) significantly reduces the level of mitochondrial autophagy and markedly exacerbates apoptosis and kidney damage, indicating that BNIP3-mediated mitochondrial autophagy plays a protective role in CI-AKI (Lin et al., 2021). Here, BNIP3 is linked to acute kidney injury.