Knocking-down c-Rel expression exacerbated neuronal susceptibility to OGD-mediated damage and c-Rel ko mice exposed to cerebral ischemia resulted insensitive to the neuroprotective activity of leptin, a c-Rel inducer capable of limiting cortical damage in wt mice (Valerio et al., 2006, 2009). Here, REL is linked to brain ischemia.