TNF and stroke disorder: TNF, IL-1 and IL-6 strongly affect the development of ischemic brain damage in animal models, and their levels are increased in the blood and in the cerebrospinal fluid of stroke patients (Lambertsen et al., 2012), thus attracting considerable interest as putative markers of stroke severity and neurologic outcome (Emsley et al., 2007; Jickling and Sharp, 2011).