During cerebral ischemia, the blockage of estrogen receptors can increase infarction size following carotid artery occlusion in female rats (Sawada et al., 2000); whereas the increase in estrogen was shown to increase the expression of the anti-apoptotic gene (B-cell lymphoma 2) in mice with cerebral ischemia (Dubal et al., 1999). Here, ESR1 is linked to brain ischemia.