TNF and ischemic stroke: As shown in Figure 3, the MCAO challenge itself induced a significant up-regulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory genes in the brains of both control and treatment animals, including IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-10, CCL2, and CCL3 (Figure 3A–C,E,G,H), indicating a pivotal role of neuroinflammation in the pathology of acute ischemic stroke events.