IL18 and Stroke: In addition, we presently show that the NLRP3 inflammasome is mainly existed in neurons after stroke, suggesting pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-18, IL-1β and IL-6 are released due to neuronal NLRP3 inflammasome activation, which, presumably, exogenously stimulates the activation and M1 polarization of microglia/macrophages, except for endogenous activation by their own NLRP3 inflammasome (Figure 12).