SOX2 and stroke disorder: Treatment with rGDF11 at 7 days after stroke resulted in a significant increase in the ipsilateral/contralateral ratio of BrdU+ cells, DCX+/BrdU+ neuroblasts (Figures 1B,D), Sox2+ NPCs and Sox2+/BrdU+ cells (Figures 1C,D) in SVZ compared with the vehicle-treated mice, indicating that rGDF11 treatment promoted NPCs proliferation after stroke.