PARP1 and ischemia: PARP-1 stimulates the production of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PAR) and release of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) from the mitochondria in males, leading to cell death, whereas the PARP-1/AIF pathway does not play a causal role in stroke-induced cell death in females, which might be associated the finding that immediately PARP-1 inhibition after ischemia alleviate ischemic brain injury only in males (Lang and McCullough, 2008; Yuan et al., 2009).