EPO and stroke disorder: Soluble growth factors, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), BDNF, epidermal growth factor (EGF), glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), erythropoietin (EPO), CNTF, transforming growth factor (TGF)-α, VEGF, and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), have also been inextricably linked to stroke-induced neurogenesis (Kokaia et al., 1995; Planas et al., 1998; Kitagawa et al., 1999; Sun et al., 2003; Schneider et al., 2005; Tureyen et al., 2005; Leker et al., 2009; Kang et al., 2012).