Vascular endothelial growth factor and angiopoietins in focal cerebral ischemia

A growing body of evidence indicates that vascular growth factors and their receptors are activated after stroke, and these factors may contribute to ischemic cell damage and to angiogenesis during recovery from stroke. In this review, we focus on recent evidence for roles of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin 1 (Ang 1) in blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage and angiogenesis after focal cerebral ischemia.