The impact of RAGE on the expression of the endothelia specific receptor Endoglin in pulmonary vasculature

Introduction: The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a cell surface receptor mainly expressed on alveolar type I cells in lung, but little in pulmonary vascular cells. Since microarray analysis of RAGE-knock out mice revealed the downregulation of Endoglin, an endothelial cell surface specific receptor, we studied the RAGE-dependent expression of pulmonary Endoglin in detail. Methods: Wildtype (WT) and RAGE knock-out C57BL/6N mouse lungs at the age of 3, 9 and 24 months were studied for Endoglin by Real-time PCR, Dot Blot, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. Results: RAGE knock-out mice…