title: Synaptic organization of cholinergic amacrine cells in the rhesus monkey retina.
abstract: In the rhesus monkey retina, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunoreactivity has been used to study the localization and synaptic organization of cholinergic neurons by both light and electron microscopy with peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunohistochemistry. ChAT-containing neurons are a type of amacrine cell with 97.5% of their cell bodies localized to the ganglion cell layer and the remainder in the inner nuclear layer. Their processes arborize in a single narrow band in the inner plexiform layer in a plane dividing the outer two-thirds from the inner one-third of this synaptic region. With electron microscopy, ChAT-immunoreactive amacrine cell processes were observed to be primarily postsynaptic to the diffuse invaginating cone bipolar cells and presynaptic to ganglion cells, although they are both post- and presynaptic to immunohistochemically unlabeled amacrine cell profiles and to ChAT-containing amacrine cell processes as well.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Mariani
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Hersh
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000032:analysis; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008251:Macaca / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009474:Neurons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification; D012160:Retina / Q000032:analysis / Q000166:cytology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000032:analysis* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase; D000109:Acetylcholine