Aortic body

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Aortic body

The thoracic aorta, heart and other great vessels. (Aortic body not visible, but arch of aorta labeled at center.)
Latin	corpora paraaortica
Gray's	subject #277 1277
Nerve	vagus nerve ^[1]
MeSH	Aortic+Bodies
Dorlands/Elsevier	b_17/12190576

In the human heart, the aortic body is one of several small clusters of chemoreceptors, baroreceptors, and supporting cells located along the aortic arch.

1 Function
2 Disorders
3 Nomenclature
4 References
5 See also

[edit] Function

It measures changes in blood pressure and the composition of arterial blood flowing past it, including the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide but not pH. The chemoreceptors responsible for sensing changes in blood gases are called glomus cells.

It gives feedback to the medulla oblongata via the afferent branches of the vagus nerve (X). The medulla, in turn, regulates breathing and blood pressure.

[edit] Disorders

A paraganglioma is a tumor that may involve the aortic body.

Swelling can also occur.

[edit] Nomenclature

Some sources equate the "aortic bodies" and "paraaortic bodies",^[2] while other sources explicitly distinguish between the two.^[3]^[4] When a distinction is made, the "aortic bodies" are chemoreceptors which regulate circulation, while the "paraaortic bodies" are the chromaffin cells which manufacture catecholamines.