Accumulated evidence indicates that apelin/APLNR improves the recovery from ischemic stroke by inhibiting cell death and facilitating angiogenesis, which are mediated by the activation of PI3K/AKT and ERKs signaling pathways, respectively (Figure 3; Chuang et al., 2011; Tao et al., 2011; Gu et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2015; Huang et al., 2016; Novakova et al., 2016; Zou et al., 2016). Here, AKT1 is linked to ischemic stroke.