Highlights in clinical autonomic neurosciences: Insights into the roles of the carotid body and carotid baroreceptor

摘要

The carotid body (CB) is the major peripheral arterial chemoreceptor in mammals that mediates the acute hyperventilatory response to hyp-oxia. The CB grows in response to sustained hypoxia and also participates in acclimatization to chronic hypoxaemia. Knowledge of CB physiology at the cellular level has increased considerably in recent times thanks to studies performed on lower mammals, and rodents in particular. However, the functional characteristics of human CB cells remain practically unknown. The authors used tissue slices or enzymati-cally dispersed cells to determine the characteristics of human CB cells. The adult human CB parenchyma contains clusters of chemosensitive glomus (type I) and sustentacular (type II) cells as well as nestin-positive progenitor cells.