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Synaptic connections of calbindin-immunoreactive cone bipolar cells in the inner plexiform layer of rabbit retina

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Abstract

In the mammalian retina, information concerning various aspects of an image is transferred in parallel, and cone bipolar cells are thought to play a major role in this parallel processing. We have examined the synaptic connections of calbindin-immunoreactive (IR) ON cone bipolar cells in the inner plexiform layer (IPL) of rabbit retina and have compared these synaptic connections with those that we have previously described for neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptor-IR cone bipolar cells. A total of 325 synapses made by calbindin-IR bipolar axon terminals have been identified in sublamina b of the IPL. The axons of calbindin-IR bipolar cells receive synaptic inputs from amacrine cells through conventional synapses and are coupled to putative AII amacrine cells via gap junctions. The major output from calbindin-IR bipolar cells is to amacrine cell processes. These data resemble our findings for NK1 receptor-IR bipolar cells. However, the incidences of output synapses to ganglion cell dendrites of calbindin-IR bipolar cells are higher compared with the NK1-receptor-IR bipolar cells. On the basis of stratification level and synaptic connections, calbindin-IR ON cone bipolar cells might thus play an important role in the processing of various visual aspects, such as contrast, orientation, and approach sensing, and in transferring rod signals to the ON cone pathway.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Socho-gu, Seoul, 137-701, Korea

    Shin Ae Kim, Choong Ki Jung, Tae-Hoon Kang, Ji Hyun Jeon, Jiook Cha, In-Beom Kim & Myung-Hoon Chun

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  1. Shin Ae Kim
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Correspondence to In-Beom Kim or Myung-Hoon Chun.

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Shin Ae Kim and Choong Ki Jung contributed equally to this study.

This study was supported by a Korea Research Foundation Grant (KRF-2007-313-E00007) and a Medical Research Center Grant (R13-2002-005-01002-0) from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the Cell Death Disease Research Center at The Catholic University of Korea (I.-B.K.) and by a grant (10029970) from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Republic of Korea (M.-H.C.).

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Kim, S.A., Jung, C.K., Kang, TH. et al. Synaptic connections of calbindin-immunoreactive cone bipolar cells in the inner plexiform layer of rabbit retina. Cell Tissue Res 339, 311–320 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-009-0895-6

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