A morphological study on the carotid body of the Angora rabbit

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to reveal the morphological structure of the carotid body of the Angora rabbit. For this purpose a total of thirteen adult Angora rabbits were used. In 5 Angora rabbits the carotid body was located in the periarterial connective tissue between the occipital and the caudal auricular arteries, but in 2 animals between the maxillary and the caudal auricular arteries. This connective tissue that enveloped the carotid body like a capsule divided the organ into numerous lobes by radiating into its parenchyma. In histological examinations the organ contained dark and light coloured nuclei that are divided into type I and type II, respectively. Type I cell that looked like a paraganglion structure was located around vessels and had large, round and oval-shaped nuclei, and contained pinkish granule in its cytoplasm. Type II cell was localized around type I ones and had long and dark coloured nuclei, which were located slightly off centre and 1-3 in number, and were full of cytoplasmic vacuoles. It has been proposed that this work may shed light on experimental hypoxia related studies by describing the exact morphology of the carotid body of Angora rabbit.