Adiponectin: an enlarging role in acute kidney injury.

Adiponectin (APN) is known as an anti-inflammatory adipokine in obesity and atherosclerosis. Jin et al. examine the effects of APN deficiency in renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) using APN knockout mice and demonstrate that APN deficiency protects mice from IRI. This newly described role for APN in acute kidney injury opens up the possibility of novel mechanistic and therapeutic strategies from the cross-fertilization of the fields of obesity and kidney diseases.