BDNF and brain ischemia: Interestingly, administration of exogenous VEGF promotes cerebral angiogenesis to increase the vascular density in the brain parenchyma, but it also causes breakdown of the blood–brain barrier and provokes neuroinflammatory changes in the adult brain or increases severity of brain edema and infarct volume in rodents with brain ischemia,54, 55 by contrast delivery of VEGF and BDNF simultaneously through transplantation of engineered BMMSCs significantly reduced brain edema and cell damage in this study.