Ischemic stroke activates the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (Anne et al., 2007), while a unilateral ablation of sensorimotor cortex elevates the level of circulating ACTH and induces morphological changes in the pituitary corticotrophs that produce ACTH and β-endorphin (Lavrnja et al., 2014). Here, POMC is linked to ischemic stroke.