AGER and chronic rhinosinusitis: Using a novel TG mouse model with doxycycline-inducible RAGE expression in sinus epithelium, we showed that RAGE overexpression alone, without smoke exposure, was sufficient to induce hallmark features of chronic sinusitis, including epithelial apoptosis (cleaved caspase-3), elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and matrix remodeling enzymes MMP-9 and MMP-13 [10].