KDR and Stroke: Of note, most of the direct neuronal effects of VEGF‐A—such as neuronal survival in cell culture models of stroke involving oxygen and glucose deprivation (Maiese, 2015) or excitotoxicity (Matsuzaki et al., 2001), hypoxic preconditioning in vitro (Wick et al., 2002), and protection in MCA occlusion models of stroke in vivo (Hayashi, Abe, & Itoyama, 1998)—have been ascribed to activation of Vegfr2 (Farokhi‐Sisakht, Farhoudi, Sadigh‐Eteghad, Mahmoudi, & Mohaddes, 2019; Greenberg & Jin, 2013; Moriyama, Takagi, Hashimura, Itokawa, & Tanonaka, 2013).