Development of morphological types and distribution patterns of amacrine cells immunoreactive to tyrosine hydroxylase in the cat retina

Abstract

Using an antibody against tyrosine hydroxylase on newborn to 30-day kitten retinas, we have been able to follow the development of the dopaminergic amacrine cells of the cat retina by light-microscopical investigations of retinal wholemounts. The Type 1 or large Toh+ amacrine cells described by others (Oyster et al., 1985;Tork & Stone, 1979) and named A18 from a Golgi study (Kolb et al., 1981), is at birth (PI) an immature neuron with a small cell body and two or three simple thick radiating dendrites stratifying in stratum 1 with many of the dendrites ending in enlarged growth cones. With increasing postnatal age, the cell body size increases from 12.5 /im diameter to reach 15.5 (jm diameter at P30. The dendritic fields also increase in size and complexity. At PI, cells of the central area exhibit dendritic appendages which then develop progressively until at P13 (after eye opening) they are part of rudimentary rings and by P30 the dendritic plexus of Toh+ dendrites and rings in stratum 1, typical of the adult cells, are complete. Toh+ stained processes with growth cones that run deep in stratum 5 of the inner plexiform layer and processes passing to the outer plexiform layer first become apparent at PI in cells of central inferior retina but not till after P13 are these processes clearly expressed. At PI, the total number of Toh+ Type 1 cells is approximately 4000 and this number remains unchanged to the adult retina. However, the retina increases in size over the P1-P30 stage and thus the mean density of Type 1 Toh+ cells decreases from 30/mm 2 at PI to 18/mm 2 at P30. The maximum density of Type 1 Toh-I-cells occurs in central retina 2-4 mm superior temporal to the area centralis, corresponding to the maximum rod photoreceptor concentration.A second type of small Toh-f amacrine cell can be visualized at PI. This Type 2 cell is characterized by a much smaller cell body than Type 1 cells (9 ;tm diameter), and with faintly stained dendrites located in stratum 3 of the inner plexiform layer. During later postnatal days, Type 2 cells gradually become unstainable and only few are still seen in far peripheral retina by P23. Type 2 Toh-t-cells form a total population of 40,000 cells at PI with their highest density occurring in peripheral retina. By P13, they cannot be seen in central retina and are reduced to a total population of cells staining for the antibody of 7400 cells in far peripheral retina. Their density decreases from 233/mm 2 at PI to 0/mm 2 at P30. The transiently staining population of Type 2 Toh+ immunoreactive cells probably correspond to the small THI-CA-cell seen in rat retina (Nguyen-Legros et al., 1983), and the second type of dopaminergic amacrine cell seen in macaque retina .

Synaptic input of ON‐bipolar cells onto the dopaminergic neurons of the mouse retina

“…4). Finally, in some species, DA cell processes appear to give rise to a fourth plexus in the deepest region of the IPL (Nguyen-Legros et al 1981, 1982, rat, M. fascicularis; Hokoç and Mariani 1987, 1988 cat, rabbit; Dacey 1990, M. mulatta; Kolb et al 1990, cat; Tauchi et al 1990, rabbit; Wang et al 1990, cat), where they synapse with the dendrites of AII amacrines (Kolb et al 1990). Occasionally, the deep processes of DA cells, after a tangential course of several hundred micrometers, ascend back to S1.…”

“…DA cell processes in S3 could be the recipients of the ON-cone bipolar synapses, but there is a confounding circumstance that complicates the interpretation of the observations quoted above: Most of the descriptions of DA cells are based on immunocytochemical demonstration of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate limiting enzyme in dopamine biosynthesis, and the retina contains a second type of TH-positive neuron, the type 2 catecholaminergic amacrine (CA) cell, whose single dendrite gives rise to an arbor residing in the S3 stratum (Mariani and Hokoç 1988, M. mulatta; Wang et al 1990, cat). This type of neuron, however, exhibits a smaller perikaryon than DA cells and is less intensely stained by antibodies to TH.…”

Tyrosine hydroxylase positive perisomatic rings are formed around various amacrine cell types in the mammalian retina

“…; Wang et al . ; Casini and Brecha ,b; Famiglietti ,b,c; Crooks and Kolb ; Völgyi et al . ; Völgyi and Bloomfield ; Zhang et al .…”

Development of neuropeptide Y immunoreactive amacrine and ganglion cells in the pre‐ and postnatal cat retina

“…This contrasts with the protracted expression of NPY and somatostatin in ganglion cells, as well as the expression of other neuroactive substances within amacrine cells. For example, cholinergic amacrine cells (ChAT-immunoreactive) dramatically increase in number during postnatal development (Dann, 1989), and a transient population of approximately 40,000 morphologically distinct tyrosine-hydroxylase immunoreactive amacrine cells disappear by the third postnatal week (Wang et al, 1990). The cells documented here show no such transcience or protracted expression before their adult complement is reached.…”