BDNF and Stroke: During IF, several neuroprotective proteins, including protein chaperones such as heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP-78), neurotrophic factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), and antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and heme oxygenase-1, are up-regulated in animal models of stroke (Arumugam et al. 2010; Fann et al. 2014, 2017; Manzanero et al. 2014).