ABSTRACT

Nowadays, it is clear that pulmonary neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) are organized as integrated receptor complexes. The groups of pulmonary neuroendocrine cells that are able to store and release transmitters upon appropriate stimulation are, apart from their thin apical processes, crowned by specialized Clara-like cells in most mammalian species. The profuse contacts of many diffrent populations of sensory and motor nerve’fibers with NEB cells strongly suggests that NEBs are able to transduce sensory information and conduct it to the CNS, while the activity of NEB cells can be modulated via autocrine (NEB cells), paracrine (Clara-like cells) and neurocrine (innervation) pathways.

This chapter summarizes our current knowledge of the origin, neurochemical coding and morphology of the selective innervation of pulmonary NEBs in rodents (rats/mice) against a background of ultrastructural information, thereby providing supporting evidence for NEBs being diverse and complex airway receptors with the capacity of chemo- and/or mechanoreceptors.