Morphometric analysis of glomus cells within the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the rat.

An endoneurial paraganglion located in the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the rat was found in 17 of 20 nerves studied. The median size of the paraganglia was estimated to be 0.8 X 10(6) micron 3. The number of type I like cells within a paraganglion ranged between 8 and 24. Altogether, 120 endoneurial dense-cored vesicle cells from 8 paraganglia were subjected to a morphometric analysis at the ultrastructure level. The mean vesicle profile diameter was estimated to be 101.3 nm and only one type of granulated cell could be distinguished. The volume density of the dense-cored vesicles was estimated to be about 6%, a value amounting to two to three times that in the carotid glomus. Moreover, the mean cell profile area of vesiculated cells of recurrent laryngeal nerve exceeds that of the cells of the carotid glomus.