Korean J Anat.  2005 Apr;38(2):199-206.

Morphological Changes of the Dopaminergic Network in the Rat Retina after Axotomy

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Socho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea. mhchun@catholic.ac.kr

Abstract

In the retina, dopaminergic cells express the receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is known to be retrogradely transported from higher center to the retina. This study was conducted to identify the effect of optic nerve transaction on the dopaminergic cells in the rat retina by immunocytochemistry using antityrosine hydroxylase (TH) antiserum. In the control retina, we found two types of TH-immunoreactive amacrine cells, type I and type II, in the inner nuclear layer (INL) adjacent to the inner plexiform layer (IPL). The type I amacrine cell varicosities formed ring-like structures in contact with AII amacrine cell somata in stratum 1 of the IPL. In the axotomized retinas, TH-labeled processes formed loose networks of fibers, unlike the dense networks in the control retina, and the ring-like structures were disrupted. Our data suggest that retrogradely transported neurotrophic factor affects the expression of TH immunoreactivity in the axotomized rat retina and may therefore influence the retinal dopaminergic system.

Keyword

Tyrosine hydroxylase; AII amacrine cells; Optic nerve transaction; Immunocytochemistry

MeSH Terms

Amacrine Cells
Animals
Axotomy*
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Immunohistochemistry
Optic Nerve
Rats*
Retina*
Retinaldehyde
Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Retinaldehyde
Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase
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