At present, there are no effective therapies to ameliorate injury, accelerate recovery, or
prevent postinjury fibrosis after AKI. Here, we sought to identify candidate compounds that
accelerate recovery after AKI by screening for small molecules that increase proliferation of
renal progenitor cells in zebrafish embryos. One compound identified from this screen was
the histone deacetylase inhibitor methyl-4-(phenylthio) butanoate, which we subsequently
administered to zebrafish larvae and mice 24–48 hours after inducing AKI. In zebrafish …