VEGFA and ischemic stroke: Moreover, it is reported that transplanting human BM-MSCs into the infarct area not only stimulates angiogenesis and neurogenesis by secreting multiple cytokines like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and TIMP-3 but also induces differentiation of endogenous stem cells, which results in neuroprotection against ischemic stroke [20, 21].