In our earlier study of transient focal cerebral ischemia, we noted that peak levels of TNF-α in the ischemic brain precedes that of α5β1 and αvβ3 upregulation, and our in vitro study showed that TNF-α stimulation promoted strong upregulated expression of α5β1 and αVβ3 integrins on human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) [28]. Here, TNF is linked to brain ischemia.