In the acute phase of ischemic stroke, resident microglia and recruited macrophages assume an M2 phenotype, and the immune-mediated inflammatory response is activated, resulting in the secretion of a number of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α and the proteolytic enzymes MMP 3 and 9) (Jiang et al., 2018). Here, TNF is linked to ischemic stroke.