Figure 1

Illustration of baroreceptors in aortic artery. Left: baroreceptor distribution. The sensory receptors are clustered in different areas along the aortic artery. They are more concentrated in the bifurcation origin of the common carotid and subclavian arteries. The white circle shows the BR structure illustrated on the right (bottom). Right: sensory structures presented in compact clusters resembling bunches of grapes. Morphologically, receptor terminals, similar to airway mechanoreceptors, swell to form knob-like or leaf-like end-formations. A single parent axon may connect with multiple sensory receptor structures, indicated by white arrows. The white circle at the right bottom encircles a single BR. The scale bar is 50 µm.