BDNF and stroke disorder: Another factors identified after stroke and which might directly affect NSC proliferation are, among others, fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) (Yoshimura et al., 2001, 2003), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) (Yan et al., 2006) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (Chen et al., 2005).