These results are consistent with previous reports implicating SIRT3 as an activator of autophagy in neuronal cells (Dai et al., 2017; Yan et al., 2018) and macrophages (Liu et al., 2018) under various stress conditions in vitro, and in vivo studies showing sirtuin activation to be protective in spinal cord injury, brain trauma, and cerebral ischemia (He et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene SIRT3 and brain injury.