Role of the carotid body cells: long-term consequences of their cryodestruction.

Rabbit carotid bodies were frozen in situ to destroy type I cells. After a one-year period of recovery allowing the sensory nerve fibres to regenerate, the animals were reexamined. Results showed that type I cells were not all destroyed in many instances but also that the presence of ventilatory reactions to chemoreceptor stimuli was always related to the presence of type I cells.