Interleukin-1 (IL-1) has pleiotropic actions in the central nervous system. During the last
decade, a growing corpus of evidence has indicated an important role of this cytokine in the
development of brain damage following cerebral ischaemia. The expression of IL-1 in the
brain is dramatically increased during the early and chronic stage of infarction. The most
direct evidence that IL-1 contributes significantly to ischaemic injury is that (1) central
administration of IL-1β exacerbates brain damage, and (2) injection or over-expression of …