Arterial Sensory Structures

Carotid Sinuses

 Slight dilations of the bilateral internal carotid arteries where they branch from the

(elastic) common carotid arteries; act as important baroreceptors monitoring

arterial blood pressure.

 Tunica media is thinner, allowing greater distension when blood pressure rises

 Adventitia contains many sensory nerve endings from cranial nerve IX

(glossopharyngeal)

 Chemoreceptors is histologically complex which monitor blood CO₂ and O₂

levels, as well as its pH, are found in the carotid bones and aortic bodies, located

in the walls of the carotid sinuses and aortic arch.

 These structures are parts of the autonomic nervous system called

paraganglia with rich capillary networks.

Glomus cells- a large, neural crest-derived that surround the capillaries filled with dense-core

vesicles containing dopamine, acetylcholine, and other neurotransmitters, which are supported

by smaller satellite cells.

Ion channels in the glomus cell membranes respond to stimuli in the following:

 Arterial blood  Hypercapnia (excess CO₂)

 Primarily hypoxia (low O₂)  Acidosis

Muscular Arteries

Muscular arteries (distributing arteries)

 Distribute blood to the organs and help regulate blood pressure by contracting or

relaxing the smooth muscle in the media.

 Intima has a thin subendothelial layer and a prominent internal elastic lamina.

The media may contain up to 40 layers of large smooth muscle cells interspersed

with a variable number of elastic lamellae.

 An external elastic lamina is present only in the larger muscular arteries. The

adventitial connective tissue contains lymphatic capillaries, vasa vasorum, and

nerves, all of which may penetrate to the outer part of the media.
Maturation of Granulocytes

Granulopoiesis - involves cytoplasmic changes dominated by synthesis of proteins for the azurophilic

granules and specific granules.

These proteins are produced in the rough ER and in the prominent Golgi apparatus in two successive

stages:

In sections of bone marrow cords of granulopoietic cells can be distinguished from erythropoietic cords

by their granule-filled cytoplasm:

Myeloblast - the most immature recognizable cell in the myeloid series. Typically these have finely dispersed

chromatin, and faint nucleoli.

Promyelocyte is characterized by basophilic cytoplasm and azurophilic granules containing lysosomal

enzymes and myeloperoxidase. Different promyelocytes activate different sets of genes, resulting in lineages for

the three types of granulocytes.

 The first visible sign of this differentiation appears in the myelocyte stage, in which specific

granules gradually increase in number and eventually occupy most of the cytoplasm at the

metamyelocyte stage.

 These neutrophilic, basophilic, and eosinophilic metamyelocytes mature with further

condensation of their nuclei. Before its complete maturation the neutrophilic granulocyte passes

through an intermediate stage, the band cell, in which the nucleus is elongated but not yet

polymorphic.
Mature neutrophils exist in four functionally and anatomically defined compartments:

(1) the granulopoietic compartment in active marrow;

(2) storage as mature cells in marrow until release;

(3) the circulating population; and

(4) a population undergoing margination, a process in which neutrophils adhere loosely and accumulate

transiently along the endothelial surface in venules and small veins.

 The marginating and circulating compartments are actually of about equal size, and there is a

constant interchange of cells between them, with the half-life of cells in these two compartments

less than 10 hours. The granulopoietic and storage compartments together include cells in

approximately the first 14 days of their existence and are about 10 times larger than the

circulating and marginating compartments.