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The rod circuit in the rabbit retina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

David I. Vaney ,
Heather M. Young  and
Ian C. Gynther
David I. Vaney
Affiliation:
Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia
Heather M. Young
Affiliation:
Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia
Ian C. Gynther
Affiliation:
Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia
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Abstract

Mammalian retinae have a well-defined neuronal pathway that serves rod vision. In rabbit retina, the different populations of interneurons in the rod pathway can be selectively labeled, either separately or in combination. The rod bipolar cells show protein kinase C immunoreactivity; the rod (An) amacrine cells can be distinguished in nuclear-yellow labeled retina; the rod reciprocal (S1 & S2) amacrine cells accumulate serotonin; and the dopaminergic amacrine cells show tyrosine-hydroxylase immunoreactivity. Furthermore, intracellular dye injection of the microscopically identified interneurons enables whole-population and single-cell studies to be combined in the same tissue. Using this approach, we have been able to analyze systematically the neuronal architecture of the rod circuit across the rabbit retina and compare its organization with that of the rod circuit in central cat retina. In rabbit retina, the rod interneurons are not organized in a uniform neuronal module that is simply scaled up from central to peripheral retina. Moreover, peripheral fields in superior and inferior retina that have equivalent densities of each neuronal type show markedly different rod bipolar to An amacrine convergence ratios, with the result that many more rod photoreceptors converge on an An amacrine cell in superior retina. In rabbit retina, much of the convergence in the rod circuit occurs in the outer retina whereas, in central cat retina, it is more evenly distributed between the inner and outer retina.

Keywords

RetinaRod signalNeuronal circuitRod bipolar cellsAn amacrine cells

Information

Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 7 , Issue 1-2 , August 1991 , pp. 141 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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