The Major Cell Populations of the Mouse Retina

Abstract

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 Mü ller 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.

In vivo evidence for unbiased ikaros retinal lineages using an ikaros‐cre mouse line driving clonal recombination

“…Since the largest clones observed here did not contain more cells than the clones obtained by retroviral vectors analysis (Turner et al, 1990), this result reinforced our conclusion that the arrays are actual clones that arise from a single cell. Most interestingly, when we compared the proportion of the different cell types generated in the clones with that of previously published retroviral lineage tracing studies (Turner et al, 1990), or with proportions of the different cell types observed in the entire retinal cell population (Turner et al, 1990;Jeon et al, 1998), we found a general similarity both in terms of proportion of cells in the clones (Fig. 7G and Table 1), and as a proportion of clones containing at least one of each cell type ( Fig.…”

Multiple death pathways in retina-derived 661W cells following growth factor deprivation: crosstalk between caspases and calpains

“…30,41 They represent an invaluable tool for the study of cone PCD, given the detection problems that can arise in studying dynamic events in cells that account for a mere 2.8% of total photoreceptors in the mouse retina. 28 In spite of the fact that previous studies in our group ruled out the involvement of caspases in several in vitro and in vivo models of photoreceptor degeneration, [42][43][44] (data not shown) and -12 were active during apoptosis of 661W cells. This conflicting data can readily be explained if one considers the differences between the models employed.…”

“…An additional obstacle for the detection of cone apoptosis in the developing mouse retina arises from the fact that cones comprise less than 3% of the total photoreceptor population. 28 Knockout mice have, therefore, been indispensable in discerning the possible pathways executed by photoreceptors. A recent study by Zeiss et al 29 employing caspase-3 knockout mice found that ablation of the later did not completely inhibit developmental apoptosis but resulted only in a temporary delay.…”

Thenob2mouse, a null mutation inCacna1f: Anatomical and functional abnormalities in the outer retina and their consequences on ganglion cell visual responses

“…The changes observed in the nob2 RGC function predict alterations in the peripheral vision of CSNB2 patients since the mouse retina has been considered in many important respects to resemble the primate retina outside of the fovea (Jeon et al, 1998). Currently, little is known about more complex visual phenotypes of CSNB2 patients, but our results would predict a deficit in vision mediated by the ON-center pathway under light-adapted conditions.…”