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Journal of Electron Microscopy Advance Access originally published online on November 29, 2007
Journal of Electron Microscopy 2007 56(6):243-247; doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfm030
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Small Clusters of Granule-Containing Cells at the Lateral Side of the Posterior Cricoarytenoid Muscle of the Young Adult Rat

Junzo Desaki1,* and Naoya Nishida2

1 Departments of Integrated Basic Medical Research and, Ehime University School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791–0295 Japan
2 Departments of Otolaryngology, Ehime University School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime 791–0295 Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: desaki{at}m.ehime-u.ac.jp

Small clusters consisting of granule-containing cells, sustentacular cells and capillaries around them, similar in structure to the carotid body-like paraganglia, sometimes existed at the lateral side of the posterior cricoarytenoid (PCA) muscle of young adult (3 months) rats. Differing from the paraganglia, however, these cell clusters were discontinuously invested by slender cytoplasmic processes of fibroblasts. In individual granule-containing cells, granules varied in size and had a concentrically or eccentrically arranged, electron-dense material, resembling those of chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. A series of desmosome-like structures were frequently observed between adjacent granule-containing cells, but synapses between them were not necessarily clear. Nerve endings containing clear synaptic vesicles and occasional granulated vesicles, being possibly cholinergic in nature, sometimes formed synapses with the granule-containing cells, probably indicating that the granule-containing cells receive the efferent nerve innervation. On the other hand, the sustentacular cells lacked cytoplasmic granules and sent their cytoplasmic processes around the granule-containing cells. Capillaries in and around clustered cells were of the fenestrated type. From these findings, it is suggested that unlike the carotid body-like paraganglia, the noncapsulated cell clusters at the lateral side of the PCA muscle of the young adult rat may be identical to groups of extra-adrenal chromaffin tissues.

Keywords     noncapsulated cell cluster, granule-containing cell, cholinergic nerve ending, synapse, posterior cricoarytenoid muscle, young adult (3 months) rat

Received     13 August 2007, accepted 16 October 2007


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