Cytochemical evidence for the existence of norepinephrine-containing glomus cells in the rat carotid body.

Some investigators have postulated that glomus cells of the rat carotid body contain only dopamine (DA), and that the norepinephrine (NE) measured in the carotid body resides only in sympathetic nerve endings and ganglion cells. To investigate this hypothesis, we employed a pharmacologic drug sequence which depleted all carotid body catecholamines and then selectively restored DA levels while keeping NE levels significantly lowered. Analysis of carotid body catecholamines by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) validated this drug regimen. Employing this drug treatment, we examined glomus cells after potassium dichromate cytochemical staining in an effort to distinguish those glomus cell vesicles which still contained appreciable amounts of catecholamine, presumably DA. Glomus cells from rats receiving vehicle or L-dopa (100 mg kg-1 ip) alone had 83 and 97% of their cells stained, respectively. However, glomus cells from reserpinized (5 mg kg-1 ip) animals were largely unstained (89%). Carotid bodies from animals treated with reserpine and then, 24 h later, with L-dopa 90 min prior to sacrifice had about 46% of their glomus cells stained while 54% of the cells were unstained. The results of this last group, coupled with our biochemical data which demonstrated that DA levels were comparable to control values but that NE was 80% depleted, suggest that a significant number of glomus cells did not contain enough catecholamine to react with the dichromate. We believe that these unstained cells may normally contain NE and that glomus cells may be of several types, some containing predominantly DA and others NE.