Excitotoxicity refers to the ability of glutamate or related excitatory amino acids to mediate the death of central neurons under certain conditions, for example, after intense exposure. Such excitotoxic neuronal death may contribute to the pathogenesis of brain or spinal cord injury associated with several human disease states. Excitotoxicity has substantial cellular specificity and, in most cases, is mediated by glutamate receptors. On average, NMDA receptors activation may be able to trigger lethal injury more rapidly than AMPA or kainate receptor activation, perhaps reflecting a greater ability to induce calcium influx and subsequent cellular calcium overload. It is possible that excitotoxic death may share some mechanisms with other forms of neuronal death.

Excitotoxic cell death

We quantified the spatial distribution of presumed ganglion cells and displaced amacrine cells in unstained whole mounts of six young normal human retinas whose photoreceptor distributions had previously been characterized. Cells with large somata compared to their nuclei were considered ganglion cells; cells with small somata relative to their nuclei were considered displaced amacrine cells. Within the central area, ganglion cell densities reach 32,000-38,000 cells/mm2 in a horizontally oriented elliptical ring 0.4-2.0 mm from the foveal center. In peripheral retina, densities in nasal retina exceed those at corresponding eccentricities in temporal retina by more than 300%; superior exceeds inferior by 60%. Displaced amacrine cells represented 3% of the total cells in central retina and nearly 80% in the far periphery. A twofold range in the total number of ganglion cells (0.7 to 1.5 million) was largely explained by a similar range in ganglion cell density in different eyes. Cone and ganglion cell number were not correlated, and the overall cone:ganglion cell ratio ranged from 2.9 to 7.5 in different eyes. Peripheral cones and ganglion cells have different topographies, thus suggesting meridianal differences in convergence onto individual ganglion cells. Low convergence of foveal cones onto individual ganglion cells is an important mechanism for preserving high resolution at later stages of neural processing. Our improved estimates for the density of central ganglion cells allowed us to ask whether there are enough ganglion cells for each cone at the foveal center to have a direct line to the brain. Our calculations indicate that 1) there are so many ganglion cells relative to cones that a ratio of only one ganglion cell per foveal cone would require fibers of Henle radiating toward rather than away from the foveal center; and 2) like the macaque, the human retina may have enough ganglion cells to transmit the information afforded by closely spaced foveal cones to both ON- and OFF-channels. Comparison of ganglion cell topography with the visual field representation in V1 reveals similarities consistent with the idea that cortical magnification is proportional to ganglion cell density throughout the visual field.

Topography of ganglion cells in human retina.

Objective: To demonstrate optical coherence tomography for high-resolution, noninvasive imaging of the human retina. Optical coherence tomography is a new imaging technique analogous to ultrasound B scan that can provide cross-sectional images of the retina with micrometer-scale resolution. Design: Survey optical coherence tomographic examination of the retina, including the macula and optic nerve head in normal human subjects. Settings Research laboratory. Participants: Convenience sample of normal human subjects. Main Outcome Measures: Correlation of optical coherence retinal tomographs with known normal retinal anatomy. Results: Optical coherence tomographs can discriminate the cross-sectional morphologic features of the fovea and optic disc, the layered structure of the retina, and normal anatomic variations in retinal and retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses with 10- μm depth resolution. Conclusion: Optical coherence tomography is a potentially useful technique for high depth resolution, cross-sectional examination of the fundus.

Optical Coherence Tomography of the Human Retina

We report a quantitative analysis of the major populations of cells present in the retina of the C57 mouse. Rod and cone photoreceptors were counted using differential interference contrast microscopy in retinal whole mounts. Horizontal, bipolar, amacrine, and Muller cells were identified in serial section electron micrographs assembled into serial montages. Ganglion cells and displaced amacrine cells were counted by subtracting the number of axons in the optic nerve, learned from electron microscopy, from the total neurons of the ganglion cell layer. The results provide a base of reference for future work on genetically altered animals and put into perspective certain recent studies. Comparable data are now available for the retinas of the rabbit and the monkey. With the exception of the monkey fovea, the inner nuclear layers of the three species contain populations of cells that are, overall, quite similar. This contradicts the previous belief that the retinas of lower mammals are “amacrine-dominated”, and therefore more complex, than those of higher mammals.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/18/21/8936.full.pdf

The major cell populations of the mouse retina.

Cl− channels reside both in the plasma membrane and in intracellular organelles Their functions range from ion homeostasis to cell volume regulation, transepithelial transport, and regulation of e

https://www.leibniz-fmp.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Physiology_and_Pathology_of_Ion_Transport/documents/PhysRev2002.pdf

Molecular Structure and Physiological Function of Chloride Channels

An antibody directed against protein kinase C (PKC) was applied to various mammalian retinae. In the cat, rat, rabbit, and macaque monkey we found PKC-like immunoreactivity in bipolar cells which had the morphology of rod bipolar cells; in the rat some amacrine cells were also immunoreactive. In the outer plexiform layer, labeled dendrites were always the central elements of the rod spherule invagination, and in the inner plexiform layer only rod bipolar axons and their axon terminals were immunoreactive. The antibody against PKC thus can be used to distinguish rod bipolar cells from cone bipolar cells. The antibody against PKC was used to determine the densities of rods and rod bipolar cells in the cat retina. In the central retina we found a rod to rod bipolar ratio of 16 to 1, in the periphery the ratio increases to 25 to 1. In freshly dissociated retina, cells with rod bipolar morphology could be identified; these cells were also labeled with the anti-PKC antibody. Hence, PKC-like immunoreactivity can be used to recognize rod bipolar cells in vitro.

Rod bipolar cells in the mammalian retina show protein kinase C‐like immunoreactivity

Retinal ganglion cell density and cortical magnification factor in the primate

It has long been contentious whether the large representation of the fovea in the primate visual cortex (V1) indicates a selective magnification of this part of the retina, or whether it merely reflects the density of retinal ganglion cells. The measurement of the retinal ganglion-cell density is complicated by lateral displacements of cells around the fovea and the presence of displaced amacrine cells in the ganglion cell layer. We have now identified displaced amacrine cells by GABA immunohistochemistry and by retrograde degeneration of ganglion cells. By reconstructing the fovea from serial sections, we were able to compare the densities of cones, cone pedicles and ganglion cells; in this way we found that there are more than three ganglion cells per foveal cone. Between the central and the peripheral retina, the ganglion cell density changes by a factor of 1,000-2,000, which is within the range of estimates of the cortical magnification factor. There is therefore no need to postulate a selective magnification of the fovea in the geniculate and/or the visual cortex.

Cortical magnification factor and the ganglion cell density of the primate retina

Cone pedicles, the synaptic terminals of cone photoreceptors, are connected in the macaque monkey retina to several hundred postsynaptic dendrites. Using light and electron microscopy, we found underneath each cone pedicle a laminated distribution of dendritic processes of bipolar and horizontal cells. Superimposed were three strata of glutamate receptor (GluR) aggregates, including a novel layer of glutamate receptors clustered at desmosome-like junctions. They are, most likely, postsynaptic densities on horizontal cell dendrites. GABA(A) and GABA(C) receptors are aggregated on bipolar cell dendrites in a narrow band underneath the cone pedicle. Glutamate released from cone pedicles and GABA released from horizontal cell dendrites act not only through direct synaptic contacts but also (more so) through diffusion to the appropriate receptors.

The cone pedicle a complex synapse in the retina

Glycine receptors (GlyRs) and their role in retinal circuitry were analyzed immunocytochemically in the rat retina. Specific antibodies against the alpha 1 subunit of the GlyR and against the GlyR-associated protein gephyrin, respectively, were used. In the inner plexiform layer (IPL), both antibodies produced a punctate label that was shown by electron microscopy to occur at synapses. Gephyrin-like immunoreactivity (-LI) was more widely distributed, indicating that gephyrin might also occur at nonglycinergic synapses. At the ultrastructural level, gephyrin-LI was found at the cytoplasmic face of postsynaptic membranes of amacrine and ganglion cells, but was never detected in bipolar cell axons. Immunoreactivity for the alpha 1 subunit was concentrated in the cleft of conventional synapses made by amacrine cell processes onto ganglion cell dendrites and cone bipolar axons. The latter synapses differ from other glycinergic synapses since they are not labeled by the antibody against gephyrin used in this study. In order to identify the type of bipolar cell involved in these synapses, the distribution of the alpha 1 subunit was compared with that of recoverin-immunoreactive cone bipolar cells and with that of parvalbumin-immunoreactive All-amacrine cells. Double-label immunofluorescence showed that, in the outer part of the IPL, 75% of the alpha 1-immunoreactive puncta were colocalized with recoverin- positive bipolar cell axons and 71% of the alpha 1-immunoreactive puncta were colocalized with parvalbumin-positive All-amacrine processes. Hence, the alpha 1 subunit of the GlyR is present at the chemical synapses established by All-amacrine cells with OFF-cone bipolar cells and OFF-ganglion cells. These synapses play a key role in the transmission of scotopic signals through the OFF-channel of the rod pathway.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/14/8/5131.full.pdf

Ulrike Grünert

Papers

Rod bipolar cells in the mammalian retina show protein kinase C‐like immunoreactivity

Retinal ganglion cell density and cortical magnification factor in the primate

Cortical magnification factor and the ganglion cell density of the primate retina

The cone pedicle a complex synapse in the retina

Glycinergic synapses in the rod pathway of the rat retina: cone bipolar cells express the alpha 1 subunit of the glycine receptor