IL6 and Stroke: These DEPs all have important roles in the post-injury inflammatory response, VEGF⍺ is a growth factor that has context-dependent beneficial effects of angiogenesis and detrimental effects on the blood brain barrier (Li et al., 2016; Geiseler and Morland, 2018), while IL-6 is a cytokine with a dual role as a pro-inflammatory molecule related to more severe stroke (Mosarrezaii et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2022) and possesses neurotrophic properties (Zhu et al., 2022).