Summary
Rat carotid bodies were studied electron microscopically after short-term severe hypovolaemia, which is known to induce a marked chemoreceptor activation in the carotid body. Altogether 84 nerve-endings in the hypovolaemic rats' carotid bodies and 91 nerve-endings in the control carotid bodies were investigated. An increased accumulation of the glomus cell granular vesicles near the synaptic specializations of the nerve-endings was observed after hypovolaemia. Moreover, a statistically significant increase in the contacts between the nerve-ending synaptic specializations and the glomus cell granular vesicles was observed after hypovolaemia. A suggestion was made that the glomus cells might act as modulating, probably inhibitory, interneurones, whose catecholamines are responsible for the inhibition.
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The authors are greatly indebted to lecturer Pekka Korkala Ph.L. from the Department of Psychology for his skilful statistical analysis of the results.
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Korkala, O., Waris, T. Ultrastructural changes in the rat carotid body in severe haemorrhagia. Cell Tissue Res. 158, 355–362 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223832
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223832