Because the central nerve system is susceptible to ischemia and hypoxia, the treatment of cerebral ischemic diseases has been regarded as a hard task. Nowadays, numerous studies have demonstrated that neural stem cells have potential capability of proliferation and differentiation following injury. Accordingly, cerebral neurons might not be the terminally differentiated cells, which may bring a new therapy to the cerebral ischemic diseases. The value of neural stem cells in the treatment of cerebral ischemic diseases is reviewed in this paper.