Abstract
ELECTRON microscopic investigations of the carotid body1–6 have provided some basic information concerning the cell types present and the characteristics of nerve fibres and blood vessels. Since the early work of De Castro7,8, the glomus cells have been widely assumed to be the chemoreceptor component of the carotid body. Lever, Lewis and Boyd5 found that nerve fibres containing a concentration of mitochondria and microvesiclos terminated near glomus cells. Ross4, on the other hand, found that the few terminal axons in apposition with glomus cells did not contain mitochondria or synaptic vesicles. In neither investigation was specialization of opposing cell membranes observed. In the examination of the carotid body recorded here, further characteristics of both the nerve endings on the glomus cells and vascular endothelium have been determined.
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BISCOE, T., STEHBENS, W. Electron Microscopic Observations on the Carotid Body. Nature 208, 708–709 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/208708a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/208708a0
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