During sepsis, pathogen-associated molecular patterns, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), stimulate Toll-like receptors and induce myocardial inflammatory cytokine production and apoptosis via activating nuclear factor (NF)-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK), the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2), p38 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK)3,4. The gene discussed is MAPK8; the disease is Sepsis.