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The Nerve Cells of the Retina

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The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences Volume 3 Number 1 Spring 2010 - 2010 The Nerve Cells of the Retina Penina Winkler Touro College Follow this and additional works at: https://touroscholar.touro.edu/sjlcas Part of the Sense Organs Commons Recommended Citation Winkler, P. (2010). The Nerve Cells of the Retina. The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences, 3(1). Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/sjlcas/vol3/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Lander College of Arts and Sciences at Touro Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences by an authorized editor of Touro Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Nerve Cells of the Retina Penina Winkler Abstract The visual pathway in the retina consists of a chain of different nerve cells. Light first travels through all the layers until it reaches the photoreceptor layer, the rod and cone layer. Rods and cones use photopigments, which contain opsin and a chromophore, to help them convert light into energy. This energy is then passed on to the horizontal and bipolar cells. Horizontal cells prevent the hyperpolarization of peripheral rods and cones if needed, and they receive color-coded signals from cones that they then continue along the optic pathway. Bipolar cells can be divided into rod bipolar cells and cone bipolar cells. Cone bipolar cells can be further subdivided into midget cone bipolar cells, which only contact one cone cell and one ganglion, and diffuse cone bipolar cells, which can contact several cone and ganglion cells. Bipolar cells can either hyperpolarize or depolarize with light, and they pass their signal on to amacrine cells or ganglion cells. Amacrine cells provide inhibition to the visual pathway, either through feedback inhibition on the bipolar cells or feedforward inhibition on ganglion cells. A1 amacrine cells provide long-range inhibition of ganglion cells. Indoleamine-accumulating amacrine cells provide a reciprocal response to bipolar cells, preventing them from hyperpolarizing so that their signal does not continue. AII amacrine cells receive input from bipolar cells and output the signal to different bipolar cells to be transmitted to ganglion cells. Ganglion cells, the last nerve cells in the visual pathway, only receive input when light hits the part of the receptive zone that produces a discharge when stimulated by a light source. Ganglion cells are specialized to detect movement in a specific direction. This prevents the brain from receiving unnecessary information. EphrinA and EphrinB are two molecules that form gradients that lead the ganglion cells to their specific destination in the brain. Magnocellular (MC) ganglion cells and intrinsically photosentive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are specific types of ganglion cells, with MC cells dominating during fixational eye movements, and ipRGCs working as circadian photoreceptors like rods and cones, contributing to light-stimulated effects on the body. Müller cells are not part of the visual pathway, but they provide support for the retina and regulation of nutrients and molecules, as well as perform many other functions in the retina. (Kolb H. et. al. 1996) Penina Winkler, BS ’09 graduated Touro College with her degree in Biology. She will be attending pharmacy school in the fall. 79 Introduction The eye is a complex sensory organ which receives visual images and carries them to the brain. When a light stimulus is initiated, the light coming into the eye touches the three tunics, or layers, of the eye; the outer tunic, the middle tunic, and the inner tunic. The first tunic is the outer tunic (colored white in diagram above), which consists of the sclera and the cornea. This layer provides protection to the inner structures of the eye, and maintains the shape and consistency of the eyeball. The sclera is the part of the outer tunic that covers the back of the eye, while the transparent cornea, a clear dome, covers the front of the eye. (Szaflarski, D.M. 1999) The aqueous humor is a thin, watery fluid that fills the space between the cornea and the iris of the middle tunic. The middle tunic is also called the uvea (colored blue in diagram above), which reduces the reflection of light and contains blood vessels. The back of the uvea, located under the sclera, is called the choroid. The ciliary bodies of the uvea cause the iris to constrict or dilate to control the amount of light entering the pupil, the hole through which light enters the lens. After light moves through the lens, it enters the vitreous humor and then the inner tunic. The inner tunic is the retina (colored red in diagram above), the most important part of the eye in terms of sight. The retina is the part of the eye that receives light impulses and converts them into energy that can be passed on to the brain. (Montgomery, T., 1998) Therefore, to understand how a human being is able to see, one must look into the inner workings of the retina, the most vital part of the visual process. The purpose of this paper is to describe the functions of the different types of cells found in the retina, and how each contributes to sight. The retina has ten layers; the pigmented epithelium, the inner and outer segments of rods and cones, the outer limiting membrane, the outer nuclear layer, the outer plexiform layer, the inner nuclear layer, the inner plexiform layer, the ganglion cell layer, the nerve fiber layer, and inner limiting membrane. By following the nerve cells through these layers, one can see the pathway that the converted energy of light impulses takes to reach the optic nerve, which leads to the brain. The pigmented epithelium is located on the external retinal wall, providing vitamin A, or retinal to the photoreceptors that it contacts. The layer of the rods and cones is where the conversion of light to energy takes place. The junctions between the rods and cones and the Müller cells make up the outer limiting membrane, which forms a blood retina barrier, isolating the inner layers of the retina from harmful substances in blood. The outer nuclear layer contains the nuclei of rods and cones. The outer plexiform layer is the layer in which the axons of the cones and rods synapse with the dendrites of the bipolar and the neurites of horizontal cells. The inner nuclear layer contains the nuclei of the bipolar, horizontal, and amacrine cells. In the inner plexiform layer, the axons of bipolar cells synapse with the neurites of amacrine cells and the dendrites of ganglion cells. In this layer, the neurites of amacrine cells also synapse with ganglion cell dendrites. The ganglion cell layer contains the nuclei of the ganglion cells, which then converge in the nerve fiber layer. The inner limiting membrane is made up of Müller cells, which form a barrier between the retinal nerve cells and the potentially harmful substances in the 80 vitreous humor. (Caceci T., 2001) Each type of cell in the pathway has its own functions which help to increase the accuracy and speed of vision. (Kolb H. et. al. 1996) (Gurney P.W.V. 1999) Rods and Cones 81 When light hits the retina, it first goes through all the layers of the retina before the cells begin to respond. This is because the photoreceptor cells, the rods and cones, are located on the outer region of the retina, furthest from the lens. (Juelich F., 2004) Both rods and cones are made up of two segments, the outer segment and the inner segment. The outer segment exhibits flat, membranous disks containing a photo pigment. The disks are infoldings of the plasma membrane that become narrower as they move away from the modified cilium, the connecting region between the inner and outer segments. These disks are produced in the inner segment and are transported by kinesins and cytoplasmic dyneins along microtubules toward the outer segment across the bridge of modified cilium. The disks are continuously being renewed; the used disks are phagocytosed by cells of pigmented epithelium. The inner segment is abundant in mitochondria; mitochondria are involved in the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate, the Golgi apparatus, and endoplasmic reticulum. (Caceci T., 2001) Rods contain the pigment rhodopsin, which functions during night vision, while cones contain iodopsin, which helps to see more accurate detail and color. There are three types of cone cells, which respond to different regions of the spectrum, discriminating the colors blue, green, and red. There are other differences between the two cells. In the cone cell the outer segment is conical, while in the rod cell it is cylindrical. The cone cell axon ends in a cone pedicle, a large, conical, flat end, which is thicker than the rod spherule, small round enlargements of the axon. Both rod and cone synapse with the cytoplasmic processes of bipolar and horizontal cells. (Kolb H. et. al. 1996) 82 Rods and cones are transducers; they convert light into electrical or neural energy. In order for this to occur, the rods and cones need photopigments. The protein opsin and a chromophore, retinal, constitute the photopigments of the rods and cones. The chromophore is needed so that color will be absorbed; without the chromophore, the photoreceptor would just absorb UV light. The photopigments are needed to provide the energy required to cause an electrical change in the membrane of the rod or cone that will be propagated from the point of absorption of the light to the rod spherule.
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