The soluble mediators interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) are major contributors to lung injury after AKI (Klein et al. 2008; Ahuja et al. 2012; Hoke et al. 2007; Grigoryev et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2009). Here, CXCL8 is linked to acute kidney injury.