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Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Retinal Cell Differentiation

  • Chapter
The Visual System from Genesis to Maturity

Abstract

The adult neural retina is characterized by both diversity and order. Diversity is recognized in the presence of different cell types, including the glial cells of Muller, ganglion, horizontal, bipolar, interplexiform, and amacrine neurons, and the highly specialized photoreceptor cells. Several of these cell types can, in turn, be subdivided into two or more subpopulations (i.e., photoreceptors can be rods or cones, and the latter can be subdivided into blue, green, or red based on their visual pigments and sensitivity to light). The complex adult retina is generated, during embryonic development, from a very simple and apparently homogeneous population of mitotically active, neuroepithelial cells. The life history of each adult retinal cell begins with several rounds of mitotic division, the last one of which is considered to represent the “birth” of that cell. After becoming postmitotic, each cell migrates (or translocates) radially to form one of the retinal cell layers, where it undergoes a process of differentiation. The ordered organization of the retina stems from the remarkable correlation between the position occupied by each cell in one of the retinal layers, on the one hand, and the differentiated properties that it expresses, on the other.

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Authors
  1. Ruben Adler
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Neurobiologia, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941, Rio de Janeiro, R.J., Brazil

    Roberto Lent

  2. Centro de Ciências de Saúde, Bloco G Cidade Universitária, 21941, Rio de Janeiro, R.J., Brazil

    Roberto Lent

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Adler, R. (1992). Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Retinal Cell Differentiation. In: Lent, R. (eds) The Visual System from Genesis to Maturity. Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6726-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6726-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-6728-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6726-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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