Further observations on the presence of wandering phagocytes within the teleostean retina.

A previous report by this author has noted the presence of wandering phagocytes at the photo-receptor-retinal epithelial interface in five teleostean species. A further 5 species have now been investigated by electron microscopy and again all specimens examined consistently show the presence of this population of phagocytes. The new species studied are the goldeye (Hiodon alosoides), the yellow eel (Anguilla anguilla), the archer fish (Toxotes jaculatrix), the goldfish (Carassius auratus) and the burbot (Lota lota). A population of ameboid phagocytes appears to be a normal feature of the teleostean retina. In some species (i.e., the goldeye and the goldfish) the phagocytes were extremely numerous and could be located in groups of 20-25. In addition, preliminary experiments with the goldfish have shown that these wandering phagocytes undergo a cyclic pattern to show changes in both morphology and location dependent upon environmental lighting.