--- - |2+ As a major cause of renal failure, transient renal ischemia and reperfusion induce both acute kidney injury and late fibrosis, which are the common pathological manifestations of end‐stage renal disease. Curcumin is a biologically active polyphenolic compound found in turmeric. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that curcumin has a protective action against renal fibrosis, whereas mechanisms underlying the anti‐fibrosis role of curcumin remain poorly defined. Here, we found that APPL1, an important intracellular binding partner for AdipoR, was involved in the pathogenesis of acute injury or fibrosis and was significantly upregulated by curcumin in a mouse model of ischemia reperfusion‐induced late kidney fibrosis. Moreover, Akt signaling was the specific signaling pathway identified downstream of APPL1 in the pathogenesis of fibrosis. Our in vitro experiment demonstrated that curcumin alleviates ischemia reperfusion‐induced late kidney fibrosis via the APPL1/Akt pathway. These data are helpful for understanding the anti‐fibrosis mechanism of curcumin in the pathogenesis of AKI‐induced late fibrosis. - Journal of Cellular Physiology, Volume 233, Issue 11, Page 8588-8596, November 2018.