DDIT3 and brain ischemia: Chop knockout (−/−) mice are more resistant to a BCAo type of ischemia than their wild-type littermates (Tajiri et al., 2004), and depletion of CHOP using RNA-interference in primary cultures of astrocytes partially prevents cell death in response to OGD (Benavides et al., 2005), suggesting that CHOP regulates a genetic program that is toxic in the context of cerebral ischemia.