[Glomus caroticum. A model to understand chemoreception].

To understand the chemoreceptive process of the carotid body we have investigated under which conditions the chemoreceptor is stimulated and which part is taken over by its different cell elements in this process. In this way it was possible to open the "black box" as Torrance called the carotid body to prove all the hypotheses and models about the chemoreception in the carotid body.