3.8 Systemic eosinophilia
Excessive infiltrations of eosinophils in the lesions instigated us to determine whether tick bites induce systemic eosinophilia or not. For this, ticks were allowed to feed on wt or RAGE-/- mice and examination of peripheral blood in a blind revealed that peripheral eosinophils count increased rapidly in wt, but not inRAGE-/- mice even in the primary infestation. At day 0 (prior to the attachment of ticks) eosinophil count was 0.6% which increased ~3 times within 24 h and reached up to the pick (8 times increase compared to day 0) at the rapid feeding phase (day 5) prior to spontaneous detachment of tick from the host following full engorgement. In the tertiary infestation, at day 0, eosinophil count was 2.6% but at day 5 post attachment eosinophil count reached up to ~7% (Figure 5). We did not find any significant change in the count of other cells of blood.