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Development of ON and OFF cholinergic amacrine cells in the human fetal retina
Author(s) -
Zhang Chi,
Yu WanQing,
Hoshino Akina,
Huang Jing,
Rieke Fred,
Reh Thomas A.,
Wong Rachel O.L.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.24405
Subject(s) - choline acetyltransferase , retina , retinal , biology , neuroscience , amacrine cell , inner nuclear layer , immunostaining , fovea centralis , anatomy , cholinergic , foveal , immunohistochemistry , biochemistry , immunology
Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) expressing retinal amacrine cells are present across vertebrates. These interneurons play important roles in the development of retinal projections to the brain and in motion detection, specifically in generating direction‐selective responses to moving stimuli. ChAT amacrine cells typically comprise two spatially segregated populations that form circuits in the ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ synaptic layers of the inner retina. This stereotypic arrangement is also found across the adult human retina, with the notable exception that ChAT expression is evident in the ON but not OFF layer of the fovea, a region specialized for high‐acuity vision. We thus investigated whether the human fovea exhibits a developmental path for ON and OFF ChAT cells that is retinal location‐specific. Our analysis shows that at each retinal location, human ON and OFF ChAT cells differentiate, form their separate synaptic layers, and establish non‐random mosaics at about the same time. However, unlike in the adult fovea, ChAT immunostaining is initially robust in both ON and OFF populations, up until at least mid‐gestation. ChAT expression in the OFF layer in the fovea is therefore significantly reduced after mid‐gestation. OFF ChAT cells in the human fovea and in the retinal periphery thus follow distinct maturational paths.