Matsui et al. (2007) also reported that autophagy plays distinct roles during myocardial ischemia and IR. Myocardial ischemia-stimulated autophagy through AMPK-dependent mechanism may be protective, whereas IR-stimulated autophagy through beclin-1-dependent, but AMPK-independent, mechanism may be detrimental (Matsui et al., 2007). The gene discussed is BECN1; the disease is myocardial ischemia.