Recent evidence has demonstrated that cardiac I/R injury resulted in dysregulation of mitophagy. Cardiac Parkin deficiency makes mice much more sensitive to MI surgery but does not affect mitochondrial or cardiac function under physiological conditions[
418]. In response to ischemic stress, PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy is induced in both
in vivo and
in vitro, although other studies have reported the opposite[
419]. Increasing Parkin-related mitophagy during ischemia appears to be a cardioprotective event, partly because the Parkin-mitophagy pathway inhibits the opining of mPTP and cardiomyocyte necroptosis[
418,
419]. However, the role of PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy in cardiac I/R remains complicated and not yet fully understood. One study has revealed that mitophagy played a protective role in response to I/R stimulation. Mice lacking PINK1 are more vulnerable to I/R injury due to worsening mitochondrial function[
420]. mPTP opens during reperfusion, while PINK1/Parkin‐mediated mitophagy inhibits this opening[
420,
421]. Sun
et al.[
422] found that Parkin catalyzed the ubiquitination of cyclophilin-D (CypD) to block mPTP opining, thereby preventing cardiomyocytes from programmed necrosis and I/R injury, in addition to regulating mitophagy. Several drugs or compounds that pharmacologically activate PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy have also been shown to have cardioprotective effects against I/R injury[
423-
425]. Conversely, excessive PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy is detrimental during cardiac I/R. The PINK1/Parkin pathway is activated by I/R injury
in vivo and
in vitro, whereas knockdown or inhibition of Parkin protects cardiomyocytes from mitophagy and apoptosis[
426,
427]. Notch1 signaling physiologically regulates cardiac development and cardiomyocyte proliferation, alleviates mitophagy and mitochondrial fragmentation by suppressing the PTEN/PINK1 pathway, and protects the heart from I/R injury[
428]. Furthermore, it has been reported that melatonin downregulated the expression of mitophagy-related proteins (Parkin, Beclin1, and NIX) and diminished excessive mitophagy through the MT2/Sirt3/FoxO3a signaling pathway, thus attenuating H/R injury in H9c2 cells[
429]. Notably, there is crosstalk between each MQC, and mitochondrial fission is often regarded as to be upstream of mitophagy. As a result, targeting mitochondrial dynamics-related proteins seems to attenuate myocardial I/R injury by controlling mitophagy[
411,
430]. FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy plays a beneficial role in cardiac I/R injury. FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy in cardiomyocytes is induced by hypoxia challenge but inhibited during reperfusion[
431,
432]. At the molecular level, I/R injury upregulates the expression of CK2α, which contributes to FUNDC1 phosphorylation at Ser13 and subsequent inhibition of FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy[
432]. Similarly, elevated RIPK3 also inhibits mitophagy following I/R injury
via post-transcriptional modification of the FUNDC1 phosphorylation site[
433]. Zhou
et al.[
432] recently found that cardiac I/R stimulation suppressed the expression of Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1), and thus counteracted the induction of PLK1 and FUNDC1-dependent mitophagy[
434]. Impaired FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy hinders the clearance of damaged mitochondria induced by I/R injury, thus facilitating mitochondrial apoptosis and impairing cardiac function. Furthermore, FUNDC1-dependent mitophagy in platelets is associated with platelet activation and cardioprotective effect during I/R injury[
431,
435]. A recent study revealed that FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy can maintain MQC and alleviate myocardial I/R damage by activating the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt)[
180]. It has been reported that mitophagy is enhanced through the HIF-1α/BNIP3 signaling pathway, and berberine could further induce this process to protect against myocardial I/R injury[
436,
437]. However, Jin
et al.[
111] found that down-regulation of dual-specificity protein phosphatase1 after cardiac I/R injury promotes excessive BNIP3-mediated mitophagy
via the JNK pathway and resulted in cardiomyocyte death. Additionally, vitamin D-mediated cardio protection against I/R injury is related to the inhibition of BNIP3-mediated mitophagy and apoptosis[
438]. Due to its additional involvement in apoptosis, the effects of BNIP3 and its dependent mitophagy on cardiac I/R injury remain uncertain. Proper regulation of mitophagy may efficiently remove damaged mitochondria, but excessive or insufficient mitophagy appears to aggravate I/R injury. Therefore, potential methods for maintaining baseline mitophagy following I/R injury warrant further research.