Midkine (MK) has been implicated in the repair of several tissues, as it is expressed during the early stages of experimental cerebral infarction (Yoshida et al. 1995), peripheral nerve injury (Sakakima et al. 2004a,b;), spinal cord injury (Sakakima et al. 2004a,b;), bone fracture (Ohta et al. 1999), myocardial infarction (Obama et al. 1998) and skin burns (Iwashita et al. 1999). This evidence concerns the gene MDK and cerebral infarction.