Consistent with our results, odc1 mRNA expression is upregulated after cerebral ischemia in gerbils (Kindy et al., 1994), and its enzymatic activity is increased after spinal cord injury (Mautes et al., 1999), mechanical brain injury (Henley et al., 1996; Rao et al., 1998) and cerebral ischemia (Babu et al., 2003) in rats. The gene discussed is ODC1; the disease is brain ischemia.