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Rods and cones in the mouse retina. II. Autoradiographic analysis of cell generation using tritiated thymidine
Author(s) -
CarterDawson Louvenia D.,
Lavail Matthew M.
Publication year - 1979
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.901880205
Subject(s) - retina , biology , thymidine , fixation (population genetics) , embryonic stem cell , anatomy , period (music) , cell , microbiology and biotechnology , neuroscience , in vitro , biochemistry , physics , acoustics , gene
The period of cell genesis of rod and cone photoreceptor cells has been determined in the retinas of C57BL/6J mice. Embryonic mice were exposed to a single dose of 3 H‐thymidine at embryonic day (E) 10‐18 by injecting pregnant mice intraperitoneally. Animals at postnatal ages were injected subcutaneously once between postnatal day (P) 0‐10. The eyes were removed at one to three months of age. After fixation, they were embedded in glyol methacrylate, sectioned at 1.5 μm and prepared for autoradiographic analysis. All of the cone cells are generated over a relatively short time interval during the fetal period. In the posterior retina, the peak of cone cell genesis occurs at E13‐E14, and no cones are generated after E16. The rods, by contrast, are generated later and over a longer time period. They first begin to be generated in the posterior retina on E13, but the peak of cell genesis in not reached until the day of birth, and some rods are generated as late as P5. For both rods and cones the peaks of cell genesis in the peripheral retina occur two to three days later than in the posterior retina. The findings demonstrate that rods and cones are developmentally distinct cell types in the mouse retina.