For example, inhibiting Stat3 activation in astrocytes in spinal cord injury, where strong astrogliosis contributes to scar formation, worsens outcome (Okada et al, 2006; Herrmann et al, 2008), but has the opposite effect in models of multiple sclerosis (Qin et al, 2012) or neonatal hypoxic brain damage (Hristova et al, 2016). This evidence concerns the gene STAT3 and multiple sclerosis.