Table 1.

Summary of the Principal Functions of Intracellular Pathway Activation in Atherosclerotic Plaque Vulnerability and Post-infarction Myocardium Injury

Pathway Activation	Plaque Vulnerability	Myocardial Infarction
JNK*	Increase (JNK2)	Controversial
p38 MAPK†	Potential increase	Controversial
ERK‡	Increase	Protection
Akt	Controversial	Protection (Akt2)
JAK-STAT§	Controversial	Protection, but controversial

^*JNK: c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase.

^†MAPK: mitogen-activated protein kinase.

^‡ERK: extracellular regulated kinase.

^§JAK: Janus kinase.