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Interleukin 17A (IL-17A), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) are important cytokines detected mostly within two weeks after stroke in previous clinical studies. Longer clinical studies investigating these cytokines are lacking. We aimed to explore the roles of these cytokines in patients within 35 days after cerebral infarction.Thirty patients with cerebral infarction and 30 healthy individuals were enrolled. Venous blood was collected from each patient at specific times and from each healthy individual only once. Coma and neurological functional deficits of the patients were evaluated by the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), respectively. Three cytokines were measured. The correlations among the three cytokines and between each cytokine and the GCS/NIHSS scores were analysed.IL-17A and TNF-α began to increase on day 1 after cerebral infarction, peaked on day 4, then decreased, and increased again on day 18. IL-17A returned to normal on day 35, but TNF-α remained higher than normal on day 35. VEGF-A began to increase on day 1, peaked on day 7, and returned to normal on day 35. From days 18 to 35, IL-17A was positively correlated with the GCS scores, and both IL-17A and VEGF-A were negatively correlated with the NIHSS scores.After cerebral infarction, VEGF-A from the acute phase and IL-17A from the early stage of recovery may be important for nerve protection and repair; TNF-α plays a complex role within 35 days.

Various methods have been used to induce the neuronal differentiation of marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, the limited induction efficiency of cells in vitro has restricted their use. Therefore, identifying a simple and efficient treatment method is necessary. Dendrobium officinale is an important traditional Chinese medicine, and its main component, polysaccharides, has many pharmacological activities. However, the effects of D. officinale polysaccharide (DOP) on the neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and treatment of ischaemic stroke remain unknown. We found that DOP promoted the neuronal differentiation of BMSCs by increasing the expression levels of neural markers, and the optimal concentration of DOP was 25 μg/mL. Additionally, the Notch signalling pathway was inhibited during the neuronal differentiation of BMSCs induced by DOP, and this effect was strengthened using an inhibitor of this pathway. The Wnt signalling pathway was activated during the differentiation of BMSCs, and inhibition of the Wnt signalling pathway downregulated the expression of neuronal genes. Furthermore, the transplantation of neuron-like cells induced by DOP improved neuronal recovery, as the brain infarct volume, neurologic severity scores and levels of inflammatory factors were all significantly reduced in vivo. In conclusion, DOP is an effective inducer of the neuronal differentiation of BMSCs and treatment option for ischaemic stroke.