Selective localization of glycine-accumulating cells in reaggregate culture of rat retina.

Uptake of [3H]glycine into the cells either in monolayer or reaggregate cultures of retina from two-day-old rat pups was studied. The glycine-accumulating cells (glycine cells) had short processes with several branches. Only 5% of process-bearing cells were labelled in the monolayer cultures. The major cell type, previously identified as photoreceptor cells, was unlabelled. In reaggregate cultures, the glycine cells were localized mainly in the outermost layer of the reaggregate. But the proportion of positive cells among all the cells in that layer was not so large. Although the cell type of the glycine cells has not yet been unambiguously identified, these results demonstrate a possible example of selective sorting out of a group of biochemically distinct cells from a cell mixture.