Baroreceptor - Low-pressure Baroreceptors

Low-pressure Baroreceptors

The low-pressure baroreceptors, are found in large systemic veins, in pulmonary vessels, and in the walls of the right atrium and ventricles of the heart (the atrial volume receptors). The low-pressure baroreceptors are involved with the regulation of blood volume. The blood volume determines the mean pressure throughout the system, in particular in the venous side where most of the blood is held.

The low-pressure baroreceptors have both circulatory and renal effects; they produce changes in hormone secretion, resulting in profound effects on the retention of salt and water; they also influence intake of salt and water. The renal effects allow the receptors to change the mean pressure in the system in the long term.

Denervating these receptors 'fools' the body into thinking that it has too low blood volume and initiates mechanisms that retain fluid and so push up the blood pressure to a higher level than it would otherwise have.