Nerve endings in rat carotid body

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary The carotid body of the rat consists of “glomera” interspersed by blood vessels and nerve bundles. Each “glomus” consists of 2–12 Type I cells, incompletely invested by 1–3 Type II cells. Type I cells are characterised by the presence of numerous dense cored vesicles in their cytoplasm and may exhibit “synaptic”-like contacts with each other. Small efferent nerve endings make synaptic contact with one or more Type I cells. Large cup-shaped afferent nerve endings make multiple synaptic contacts of two kinds with one or more Type I cells. A second kind of efferent nerve ending is occasionally seen in synaptic contact with one of these afferent nerve endings. A model for the mode of operation of the glomus as a chemoreceptor is proposed.