C3 and ischemic stroke: In an early transcriptomic study23 and its follow-up6, it was proposed that astrocytes adopt a neurotoxic phenotype characterized by increased expression of C3 after exposure to specific cytokines secreted by microglia exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), whereas they acquire a neuroprotective phenotype in the middle cerebral arterial occlusion (MCAO) model of ischemic stroke.