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Glycinergic transmission in the mammalian retina.

Waessle, H; Heinze, L; Ivanova, E; Majumdar, S; Weiss, J; Harvey, RJ; (2009) Glycinergic transmission in the mammalian retina. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience , 2 , Article 6. 10.3389/neuro.02.006.2009. Green open access

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Abstract

Glycine and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are the major inhibitory neurotransmitters in the retina. Approximately half of the amacrine cells release glycine at their synapses with bipolar, other amacrine, and ganglion cells. Glycinergic amacrine cells are small-field amacrine cells with vertically oriented dendrites and comprise more than 10 different morphological types. The retinal distributions of glycine receptor (GlyR) α1, α2, α3 and α4 subtypes have been mapped with subunit-specific antibodies. GlyRs were clustered at postsynaptic hot spots which showed selective distributions for the different subunits. As a rule, only one α subunit was expressed at a given postsynaptic site. The kinetic properties of GlyRs were measured by recording spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) from identified retinal neurons in wild-type, Glra1spd-ot, Glra2 and Glra3 knockout mice. From observed differences of sIPSCs in wild-type and mutant mice, the cell-type specific subunit composition of GlyRs could be defined. OFF-cone bipolar cells and A-type ganglion cells receive prominent glycinergic input with fast kinetics that is mainly mediated by α1β GlyRs (decay time constant τ ∼ 5 ms). By contrast, AII amacrine cells express α3β GlyRs with medium fast kinetics (τ ∼ 11 ms). Narrow-field (NF) and wide-field amacrine cells contain predominantly α2β GlyRs with slow kinetics (τ ∼ 27 ms). Lastly, ON-starburst, narrow-field and wide-field amacrine cells in Glra2 knockout mice express α4β GlyRs with very slow kinetics (τ ∼ 70 ms).

Type: Article
Title: Glycinergic transmission in the mammalian retina.
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3389/neuro.02.006.2009
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org./10.3389/neuro.02.006.2009
Language: English
Additional information: © 2009 Wässle, Heinze, Ivanova, Majumdar, Weiss, Harvey and Haverkamp. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation. This document is protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permission
Keywords: glycine receptors, sIPSCs, retina, synapses, Glra1spd-ot mice, Glra2−/− mice, Glra3−/− mice
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1351318
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