Cerebral I/R injury activates ER stress; using a cerebral I/R rat model, Wang et al. found that the expression of autophagy-related proteins, ATG12-ATG5 and LC3-PE, and the expression of p62 mRNA were increased 1 h after cerebral ischemia and 24 h after cerebral reperfusion. The gene discussed is SQSTM1; the disease is brain ischemia.