FGF2 and neurodegenerative disease: Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases: In order to explore the neuroprotective potential of FGF2-derived peptides, researchers used an in vitro oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD) model and an in vivo rat retinal ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury model to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of FGF2-derived peptide FK18 [30].