title: Modeling cat retinal beta-cell arrays.
abstract: There were three objectives to the work undertaken for this paper: (1) to provide a comprehensive characterization of the statistical properties of arrays of beta-cell somata; (2) to develop a model that simulates cellular arrays with the same properties; and (3) to use this model to examine whether the array of beta-cells should be viewed as one array or as two arrays, one each for its OFF- and ON-center cells. Beta-cells are morphological correlates of the electrophysiological X-cells and those beta-cells whose dendrites stratify within the outer and inner sublamina of the retina's inner plexiform layer correspond, respectively, to OFF- and ON-center X-cells. Arrays of peripheral beta-cell somata from two retinas were studied. A Delaunay triangulation and a Voronoi tessellation were generated for each array and measures derived from these constructs used to analyze the arrays' spatial organization. As others have shown previously with a less complete statistical characterization, we found that the arrays of OFF- and ON-center beta-cells have similar spatial properties and are more regular than the array of all beta-cells. We developed a model to simulate cellular arrays with spatial properties like those of arrays of beta-cells. A good fit between model and real arrays was found when the model assumed an explicit spatial dependence between the placement of OFF- and ON-center cells. We propose therefore that a single array of beta-cells formed of both OFF- and ON-center cells is consistent with the data currently available for beta-cell somatic arrays.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Institute and Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. xzhan@neurobio.sunysb.edu
authors.forename: X J
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Troy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D002415:Cats; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003712:Dendrites / Q000378:metabolism; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase