Strategic Positioning of Connexin36 Gap Junctions Across Human Retinal Ganglion Cell Dendritic Arbors

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

Roland Nitschke¹  Zoltán Somogyvári³  Zsigmond Benkő³  Gábor Baksa⁴  Orsolya Kántor⁴  Emese Pálfi⁴  Gergely Rácz⁷  Gábor Debertin⁸  Gergely Szarka⁸  Béla Völgyi⁸ 

[1] 0BIOSS Center for Biological Signaling Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;Center for Neuroscience, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary;Complex Systems and Computational Neuroscience Group, Wigner Research Center for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary;Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary;Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary;Department of Neuroanatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary;János Szentágothai Research Center, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary;Life Imaging Center, Center for Biological Systems Analysis, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany;MTA-PTE NAP 2 Retinal Electrical Synapses Research Group, Pécs, Hungary;

关键词: gap junction;    electrical synapse;    ganglion cell;    inner plexiform layer;    ganglion cell layer;    human retina;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fncel.2018.00409

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Connexin36 (Cx36) subunits form gap junctions (GJ) between neurons throughout the central nervous system. Such GJs of the mammalian retina serve the transmission, averaging and correlation of signals prior to conveying visual information to the brain. Retinal GJs have been exhaustively studied in various animal species, however, there is still a perplexing paucity of information regarding the presence and function of human retinal GJs. Particularly little is known about GJ formation of human retinal ganglion cells (hRGCs) due to the limited number of suitable experimental approaches. Compared to the neuronal coupling studies in animal models, where GJ permeable tracer injection is the gold standard method, the post-mortem nature of scarcely available human retinal samples leaves immunohistochemistry as a sole approach to obtain information on hRGC GJs. In this study Lucifer Yellow (LY) dye injections and Cx36 immunohistochemistry were performed in fixed short-post-mortem samples to stain hRGCs with complete dendritic arbors and locate dendritic Cx36 GJs. Subsequent neuronal reconstructions and morphometric analyses revealed that Cx36 plaques had a clear tendency to form clusters and particularly favored terminal dendritic segments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown