TNF and Stroke: Up-regulated serum and brain pro-inflammatory cytokines elicited by TBI or stroke were attenuated by treatment with rhEPO (Chen et al., 2007; Bian et al., 2010; Chau et al., 2011), although EPO administration enhanced BDNF up-regulation elicited by cerebral ischemia, but did not prevent inflammatory gene up-regulation (e.g., IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α) (Mengozzi et al., 2012).