Immune responses in the central nervous system (CNS), which involve both resident glial cells and infiltrating peripheral immune cells, play critical roles in the progress of brain injuries and neurodegeneration. To avoid inflammatory damage to the compromised brain, the immune cell activities in the CNS are controlled by a plethora of chemical mediators and signal transduction cascades, such as inhibitory signaling through programed death-1 (PD-1) and programed death ligand (PD-L) interactions. An increasing number of recent studies have highlighted the importance of PD-1/PD-L pathway in immune regulation in CNS disorders such as ischemic stroke, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. Here, we review the current knowledge of the impact of PD-1/PD-L signaling on brain injury and neurodegeneration. An improved understanding of the function of PD-1/PD-L in the cross-talk between peripheral immune cells, CNS glial cells, and non-immune CNS cells is expected to shed further light on immunomodulation and help develop effective and safe immunotherapies for CNS disorders.