Acute brain injury: Stroke and acute TBI were associated with an increase in brain GFAP expression (SMD 11.24 [4.08–18.40], Fig. 2) alongside motor impairment compared to sham controls (Duan et al., 2024; Zhang et al., 2024a; Silva de Carvalho et al., 2022; Ahnstedt et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2019). Here, GFAP is linked to brain injury.