MAPK3 and Cerebral ischemia: Early studies demonstrated that brain tissue that is deprived of oxygen following cerebral ischemia and neuronal injury exhibits necrosis or apoptosis and that the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK)1/2 signaling pathway is simultaneously activated to facilitate cell proliferation, differentiation and repair, which alleviates the damage to nerve cells[2–3].