Effects of Hypoxia on Cultured Chemoreceptors of the Rat Carotid Body: DNA Synthesis and Mitotic Activity in Glomus Cells

Enlargement of the carotid body, an arterial chemosensory organ, is known to occur under natural conditions of chronic hypoxia or during hypoxic lung disease (Edwards et al 1971a,b; Dhillon et al 1984). For example, natives or animals living at high altitude (e.g. the Peruvian Andes) have enlarged carotid bodies and a high incidence of carotid body tumors (Edwards et al 1971b). This enlargement is due to both hyperplasia and hypertrophy of …