In rodent models of focal cerebral ischemia, systemic administration of SCF (Zhao et al., 2007b), G-CSF (Schneider et al., 2005; Zhao et al., 2007b), and SCF+G-CSF (Kawada et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2007b) initiated in the acute phase of ischemic stroke (<48 h after MCA occlusion) results in the reduction of infarction size. The gene discussed is KITLG; the disease is infarction.