BDNF and medical procedure: For example, GB was reported to reduce infarct volume and neurological deficits in mice with middle cerebral artery occlusion, and the suggested mechanisms included heme oxygenase-1, upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression, modulation of microglia/macrophages, inhibition of nuclear factor kappa-B-induced inflammation and apoptosis, suppression of oxidative damage, and improved blood-brain-barrier function (Lv et al., 2011; Shah et al., 2011; Gu et al., 2012; Huang et al., 2012; Shu et al., 2016; Wei et al., 2017).