title: Morphological changes in the rat carotid body following acute sodium nitrite treatment.
abstract: The carotid body (CB) is a small neural crest-derived chemosensory organ that detects the chemical composition of the arterial blood and responds to its changes by regulating breathing. The effects of acute nitrite treatment on the CB morphology in rats were examined by morphometry. We found that 1h after administrating a single dose of sodium nitrite, the CB underwent structural changes characterized by a prominent increase in its size with a marked, several-fold dilation of the blood vessels. The obvious CB enlargement mostly due to apparent vasodilation and glomus cell hypertrophy was at its highest one day later and persisted until the fifth day. 20 days after the treatment, the CB regained its size to the normoxic control state. Morphometric analysis revealed that the CB size increase in treated animals is statistically significant when compared to that of untreated controls. It can be inferred that the nitrite-exposed CB displays remarkable structural plasticity and enlarges its size mostly through vascular expansion.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria; Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Dimitrinka Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Atanasova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria; Department of Anatomy and Histology, Medical University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria. Electronic address: nlazarov@medfac.acad.bg.
authors.forename: Nikolai E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Lazarov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D002344:Carotid Body / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology*; D007202:Indicators and Reagents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012977:Sodium Nitrite / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D012977:Sodium Nitrite
keywords: Carotid body; Hemic hypoxia; Reactive oxygen species; Sodium nitrite; Structural plasticity; Vasodilation