Leukocyte adhesion and adhesion molecule expression in cremaster muscle whole mounts. Intravascular and perivascular numbers of adherent leukocytes (mean ± SEM) were investigated in postcapillary venules of cremaster muscle whole mounts from WT mice (40 vessels in 4 mice), RAGE^−/− mice (27 vessels in 3 mice), Icam1^−/− mice (35 vessels in 3 mice), and RAGE^−/−Icam1^−/− mice (40 vessels in 3 mice; A-B). Cremaster muscles were obtained after exteriorization and 20-minute superfusion (trauma-induced inflammation, upper 4 bars of A-B) or directly postmortem (WT unstimulated, last bar at the bottom of A-B). *Significant differences (P < .05) to WT control mice (first bar on top in A-B). In addition, immunostaining was conducted to assess endothelial expression of ICAM-1 (C: n = 8; D: n = 5; E: n = 4; F: n = 4) and RAGE (G: n = 4; H: n = 8; I: n = 3; K: n = 3; L: n = 3; M: n = 3) in postcapillary venules of cremaster muscles obtained directly postmortem (Unstimulated, left side) or after exteriorization and 20-minute superfusion (Trauma, right side). The respective images are representative for the various groups. Application of primary antibody was performed intravenously before harvesting the cremaster muscle to stain RAGE and ICAM-1 on the endothelial surface. Biotinylated secondary antibody, peroxidase-conjugated streptavidin, and diaminobenzidine were used to detect endothelial expression of ICAM-1 and RAGE as brown signal. Counterstaining was performed by Mayer hemalaun. Reference bar for panels C to M is shown in panel M and represents 25 μm.