Abstract: Poststroke fatigue is not a single etiology disorder.As a kind of central fatigue,the basal ganglia,thalamencephalon,limbic system and the high grade cortical area man be involved,but none of them can be identified as the fatigue area.Some literature suggest the interrelationship between the proinflammatory cytokines,such as IL-1,TNF-α,IL-6,and fatigue.Since the pathologic process of stroke involving cytokines,the researchers proposed that poststroke fatigue may be related to sickness behavior promoted by proinflammatory cytokines ultimately.The physical fatigue may be associated with the proinflammatory cytokines's activation to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis,and the psychological fatigue may involve that proinflammatory cytokines decreased the clearance of extracellular glutamate by astroglia.

Key words: proinflammatory cytokines, stroke, fatigue, review