This new volume of the book series Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology provides a complete and exhaustive overview of the morphofunctional organization of the mammalian carotid body, a polymodal chemosensory organ responsible for the maintenance of blood gas homeostasis.

The authors review the state of the art of the neurochemical anatomy of carotid body s cell populations with a special reference to their structural and neurochemical plasticity. The essential role of this organ in the generation, progression and maintenance of cardiorespiratory and metabolic diseases in humans and other mammals is presented. Finally, the book summarizes current knowledge on the stem cell niche in the mammalian carotid body and discusses its contribution to replacement cell therapy and other potential applications in translational research.

This book represents an essential reading for physiologists, anatomists, cell, and developmental biologists, aswell as physicians, veterinarians, and biomedical researchers.

Autorentext

Dr. Nikolai E. Lazarov received his MD from the Medical University of Sofia in 1981, his PhD in Neurobiology in 1991, and his DSc in 2000. Dr. Lazarov became Associate Professor in 1994 and was promoted to a Full Professor in 2001. Currently he is a Professor of Anatomy and Cell Neurobiology at the Department of Anatomy and Histology to the Medical University of Sofia and Head of the same department. He is also a collaborating Professor and Head of the Department of Synaptic Signaling and Communications to the Institute of Neurobiology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Lazarov was an AvH Fellow in Ulm and Munich, Germany. He has been a Visiting Professor at the universities of Antwerp, Belgium, Leiden, the Netherlands, Ulm and Munich, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland. His research interests are in the areas of neuroscience, with a focus on functional morphology and neurochemistry of the trigeminal sensory system, and also on peripheral arterial chemoreceptors. He has^2000 times. He has an h-index = 22 (Scopus). Dr. Lazarov is the current President of the Bulgarian Anatomical Society. He was Chairman of the Executive Board of the Bulgarian National Science Fund and later its Vice President.

Dr. Dimitrinka Y. Atanasova is a research associate professor at the Department of Synaptic Signaling and Communications at the Institute of Neurobiology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She received a master's degree in Biology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 2000 and a Ph.D. degree in Morphology at the Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology, and Anthropology with a Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2015. Dr. Atanasova was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the Medical Faculty of Trakia University - Stara Zagora in 2016, and in 2020 she was elected Associate Professor at the same Department. She has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,Göttingen, Germany and at the Institute of Anatomy, University Medical Center, Rostock University, Germany. Her scientific interests are in the field of experimental morphology and, in particular, the carotid body morphology and neurochemistry.