3.4 Roles of RAGE in the feeding process of hard ticks
To evaluate the impact of RAGE-ligands axis on the tick bite induced
inflammation, ticks were allowed to feed on wt orRAGE-/- mice. We observed that infiltration of
inflammatory cells gradually increased in the subsequent infestations in
wt mice but it was not evident in RAGE-/- mice,
indicating RAGE plays a vital role in the development of pathological
changes induced during tick bite (Figure 1A). Counting of the
inflammatory cells per focus by two blind investigators revealed that
the number of inflammatory cells significantly (p<0.001)
increased at the site of attachment of ticks in the different feeding
phases in wt mice but not in RAGE -/- mice. However, in the
3rd infestations, cellular infiltration reached to the
highest level (350.3±16.8 cells/focus) in wt mice, whereas in theRAGE-/- mice it was almost comparable to the
cellular infiltration detected in fresh skin (Figure 1B).