Choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive neurons in the retina of normal and dark-reared turtle Journal Article

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Authors: Lee, Eun-Jin; Merwine, David K.; Padilla, Monica; Grzywacz, Norberto M.
Article Title: Choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive neurons in the retina of normal and dark-reared turtle
Abstract: Visual deprivation alters retinal-ganglion-cell response properties through changes in spontaneous wave-like activity (Sernagor and Grzywacz 1996] Curr Biol 6:1503-1508). This activity depends on cholinergic synaptic transmission in the turtle retina (ibid; Sernagor and Mehta 2001] J Anat 199:375-383). We studied the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) by immunocytochemistry and Western blot in developing retinas of control and dark-reared turtles. At postnatal day 0 (P0), right after hatching, ChAT-immunoreactivity was present in the ganglion cell layer (GCL), in the inner nuclear layer (INL), and in two distinct bands of the inner plexiform layer (IPL). In P14- and P28-control, and P14- and P28-dark-reared retinas, ChAT-immunoreactivity showed similar patterns to those in P0. However, in P14- and P28-dark-reared retinas the density of ChAT-immunoreactive cells was higher in both the INL and GCL than in P14- and P28-control retinas, respectively. Moreover, Western blotting showed that ChAT protein levels were significantly increased in the dark-reared retina compared to those of the control. TUNEL studies indicated that the difference between normal and dark-reared conditions was not due to extra apoptosis in the former. In turn, proliferating-cell nuclear antigen immunocytochemistry showed no extra proliferating cells in the latter. Finally, nearest-neighbor analysis revealed that the denser population of cholinergic cells in dark-reared turtles formed a mosaic as regular as the normal ones in the GCL. Thus, light deprivation increases the expression of ChAT, increasing the apparent density of cholinergic neurons in the developing turtle retina.
Journal Title: The Journal of comparative neurology
Volume: 503
Issue: 6
ISSN: 0021-9967
Publisher: Unknown  
Journal Place: United States
Date Published: 2007
Start Page: 768
End Page: 778
Language: eng
DOI/URL:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17570494

10.1002/cne.21416
Notes: J2: J Comp Neurol