Expression of RAGE and S100/calgranulins and accumulation of AGEs following arterial injury. (a) Femoral artery guide-wire injury was performed in C57BL/6 wild-type mice, and RNA was harvested for RT-PCR using primers for RAGE, S100, and β-actin at the indicated times. (b–d) Immunohistochemistry was performed on femoral artery segments harvested at the injury site using an Ab to RAGE (b), S100b (c), or AGE (d). In b, sections were stained with Ab to smooth muscle α-actin. Scale bar: 50 μm. (e) Myeloperoxidase activity. Wild-type mice were subjected to arterial injury; 1 h after injury, vessel segments from the injured versus uninstrumented controls were retrieved and assayed for MPO activity. For each point, vessels were harvested and pooled from n = 2 mice per condition. Finally, data from three sets of pooled animals per condition are reported.