title: Developmental plasticity of NMDA receptor function in the retina and the influence of light.
abstract: Despite the early expression of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) in the retina, not much is known about their regulation and involvement in plasticity processes during retinal development and synapse formation. Here we report that NMDAR function in the inner retina is developmentally regulated and controlled by ambient light condition. A prominent down-regulation after eye opening of NMDAR function was observed in rat retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which was prevented by dark rearing the animals for 1 month but was again induced by subsequent light exposure. As shown by molecular analysis of single RGCs, alterations in the subunit composition of NMDAR did not account for the light-dependent regulation of NMDAR function. Immunocytochemistry showed no differences in the NMDAR protein expression pattern between normal and dark-reared animals. In conclusion, our data clearly demonstrate that NMDAR function is modulated during periods of retinal plasticity independent of structural alterations in its subunit composition and thus different from mechanisms observed in higher visual centers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology of Vision and Neuro-Ophthalmology, Division of Experimental Ophthalmology, Laboratory for Cell Physiology and Molecular Biology, University Eye Hospital, Tübingen, Germany. guenther@nmi.de
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guenther
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wheeler-Schilling
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Albach
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gründer
authors.forename: Sascha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fauser
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohler
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D005333:Fetus; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008027:Light; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000528:radiation effects*
chemical_list: D021122:Protein Subunits; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate