MacNeil M A, Masland R H
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA.
Neuron. 1998 May;20(5):971-82. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80478-x.
We report a quantitative survey of the population of amacrine cells present in the retina of the rabbit. The cells' dendritic shape and level of stratification were visualized by a photochemical method in which a fluorescent product was created within an individual cell by focal irradiation of that cell's nucleus. A systematically random sample of 261 amacrine cells was examined. Four previously known amacrine cells were revealed at their correct frequencies. Our central finding is that the heterogeneous collection of other amacrine cells is broadly distributed among at least 22 types: only one type of amacrine cell makes up more than 5% of the total amacrine cell population. With these results, the program of identification and classification of retinal neurons begun by Cajal is nearing completion. The complexity encountered has implications both for the retina and for the many regions of the central nervous system where less is known.
我们报告了一项对兔视网膜中无长突细胞群体的定量调查。通过一种光化学方法观察细胞的树突形状和分层水平，该方法通过对单个细胞核进行聚焦照射在细胞内产生荧光产物。检查了261个无长突细胞的系统随机样本。四种先前已知的无长突细胞以正确的频率被发现。我们的主要发现是，其他无长突细胞的异质集合广泛分布在至少22种类型中：只有一种无长突细胞占无长突细胞总数的5%以上。有了这些结果，由卡哈尔开始的视网膜神经元识别和分类计划已接近完成。所遇到的复杂性对视网膜以及对许多了解较少的中枢神经系统区域都有影响。
