BDNF and stroke disorder: 92 When transplanted into a stroke model, BDNF secretion from MSCs was associated with increased functional recovery, decreased lesion volume, decreased apoptosis and increased angiogenesis.34 Several studies have shown that overexpression of BDNF in MSCs further enhanced repair and recovery.93, –95 However, Koh et al.96 demonstrated that neutralising BDNF did not completely ameliorate the observed improvements in neurological function following human umbilical cord-derived MSC transplantation, suggesting other mediators are important in promoting recovery after stroke.