scholarly journals Characterization of retinal development in 13-lined ground squirrels

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangeetha Kandoi ◽  
Cassandra Martinez ◽  
Dana Merriman ◽  
Deepak A Lamba

Purpose: The cone-dominant, 13-lined ground squirrel (13-LGS) retina mimics the human foveal region but retinal development in this useful rodent species has not been reported. Here, the embryonic and postnatal development of the 13-LGS retina was studied to further characterize the species as a practical alternative animal model for investigating cone-based vision in health and disease. Methods: The spatiotemporal expression of key progenitor and cell type markers was examined in retinas from defined embryonic and postnatal stages using immunohistochemistry. Changes in the postnatal gene expression were also assessed by qPCR. Results: The 13-LGS neuroblastic layer expressed key progenitor markers (Sox2, Vsx2, Pax6, and Lhx2) at E18. Sequential cell fate determination evidenced by the first appearance of cell type-specific marker labeling was: at E18, ganglion cells (Brn-3A, HuC/D) and microglia (Iba1); at E24-25.5 shortly before birth, photoreceptor progenitor (Otx2, Recoverin), horizontal and amacrine cells (Lhx1, Oc1); and at P15, bipolar cells (Vsx1, CaBP5) and Muller glia cells (GS, Rlbp1). Photoreceptor maturation indicated by opsin+ outer segments and PNA labeling of cone sheaths was completed at the time of eye opening, P21-24. Conclusions: The timeline and order of retinal cell development in the 13-LGS generally matches that recorded from other mammalian models but with a stark variation in the proportion of various cell types due to cone-dense photoreceptors. This provides a baseline for future examinations of developmental, disease model, and stem cell approach studies employing this emerging rodent model of human vision.

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.E. REESE ◽  
M.A. RAVEN ◽  
K.A. GIANNOTTI ◽  
P.T. JOHNSON

The present study has examined the emergence of cholinergic stratification within the developing inner plexiform layer (IPL), and the effect of ablating the cholinergic amacrine cells on the formation of other stratifications within the IPL. The population of cholinergic amacrine cells in the ferret's retina was identified as early as the day of birth, but their processes did not form discrete strata until the end of the first postnatal week. As development proceeded over the next five postnatal weeks, so the positioning of the cholinergic strata shifted within the IPL toward the outer border, indicative of the greater ingrowth and elaboration of processes within the innermost parts of the IPL. To examine whether these cholinergic strata play an instructive role upon the development of other stratifications which form within the IPL, one-week-old ferrets were treated with l-glutamate in an attempt to ablate the population of cholinergic amacrine cells. Such treatment was shown to be successful, eliminating all of the cholinergic amacrine cells as well as the alpha retinal ganglion cells in the central retina. The remaining ganglion cell classes as well as a few other retinal cell types were partially reduced, while other cell types were not affected, and neither retinal histology nor areal growth was compromised in these ferrets. Despite this early loss of the cholinergic amacrine cells, which are eliminated within 24 h, other stratifications within the IPL formed normally, as they do following early elimination of the entire ganglion cell population. While these cholinergic amacrine cells are present well before other cell types have differentiated, apparently neither they, nor the ganglion cells, play a role in determining the depth of stratification for other retinal cell types.


Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (6) ◽  
pp. 1059-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.K. Waid ◽  
S.C. McLoon

The different retinal cell types arise during vertebrate development from a common pool of progenitor cells. The mechanisms responsible for determining the fate of individual retinal cells are, as yet, poorly understood. Ganglion cells are one of the first cell types to be produced in the developing vertebrate retina and few ganglion cells are produced late in development. It is possible that, as the retina matures, the cellular environment changes such that it is not conducive to ganglion cell determination. The present study showed that older retinal cells secrete a factor that inhibits the production of ganglion cells. This was shown by culturing younger retinal cells, the test population, adjacent to various ages of older retinal cells. Increasingly older retinal cells, up to embryonic day 9, were more effective at inhibiting production of ganglion cells in the test cell population. Ganglion cell production was restored when ganglion cells were depleted from the older cell population. This suggests that ganglion cells secrete a factor that actively prevents cells from choosing the ganglion cell fate. This factor appeared to be active in medium conditioned by older retinal cells. Analysis of the conditioned medium established that the factor was heat stable and was present in the <3 kDa and >10 kDa fractions. Previous work showed that the neurogenic protein, Notch, might also be active in blocking production of ganglion cells. The present study showed that decreasing Notch expression with an antisense oligonucleotide increased the number of ganglion cells produced in a population of young retinal cells. Ganglion cell production, however, was still inhibited in cultures using antisense oligonucleotide to Notch in medium conditioned by older retinal cells. This suggests that the factor secreted by older retinal cells inhibits ganglion cell production through a different pathway than that mediated by Notch.


1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Möckel ◽  
S. Löhrke ◽  
H.-D. Hofmann

AbstractWe have used monolayer cultures prepared from early postnatal rabbit retinae (days 2–5) by the sandwich technique to study the capacity of immature neurons to express specific neuronal phenotypes in a homogeneous in vitro environment. Applying morphological, immunocytochemical, and autoradiographic criteria, we demonstrate that a variety of phenotypes could be distinguished after 7–14 days in vitro, and correlated with known retinal cell types. Bipolar cell-like neurons (approximately 4% of total cell number) were identified by cell type-specific monoclonal antibodies (115A10) and their characteristic bipolar morphology. Small subpopulations (about 1%) of GABA-immunoreactive neurons acquired elaborate morphologies strikingly similar to those of A- and B-type horizontal cells. Amongst putative amacrine cells several different subpopulations could be classified. GABA-immunoreactive amacrine-like neurons (6.5%), which also showed high affinity [3H]-GABA uptake, comprised cells of varying size and shape and could be subdivided into subpopulations with respect to their response to different glutamate receptor agonists (NMDA, kainic acid, quisqualic acid). In addition, a small percentage of [3H]-GABA accumulating cells with large dendritic fields showed tyrosine-hydroxylase immunoreactivity. Presumptive glycinergic amacrine cells (18.5%) were rather uniform in shape and had small dendritic fields. Release of [3H]-glycine from these neurons was evoked by kainic and quisqualic acid but not by NMDA. Small [3H]-glutamate accumulating neurons with few short processes were the most frequent cell type (73%). This cell type also exhibited opsin immunoreactivity and probably represented incompletely differentiated photoreceptor cells. Summing the numbers of characterized cells indicated that we were able to attribute a defined retinal phenotype to most, if not all of the cultured neurons. Thus, we have demonstrated that immature neuronal cells growing in monolayer cultures, in the absence of a structured environment, are capable of maintaining or producing specific morphological and functional properties corresponding to those expressed in vivo. These results stress the importance of intrinsic factors for the regulation of neuronal differentiation. On the other hand, morphological differentiation was far from perfect indicating the requirement for regulatory factors.


Author(s):  
Alexandra Kling ◽  
Alex R. Gogliettino ◽  
Nishal P. Shah ◽  
Eric G. Wu ◽  
Nora Brackbill ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe functional organization of diverse retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types, which shapes the visual signal transmitted to the brain, has been examined in many species. The unique spatial, temporal, and chromatic properties of the numerically dominant RGC types in macaque monkey retina are presumed to most accurately model human vision. However, the functional similarity between RGCs in macaques and humans has only begun to be tested, and recent work suggests possible differences. Here, the properties of the numerically dominant human RGC types were examined using large-scale multi-electrode recordings with fine-grained visual stimulation in isolated retina, and compared to results from dozens of recordings from macaque retina using the same experimental methods and conditions. The properties of four major human RGC types -- ON-parasol, OFF-parasol, ON-midget, and OFF-midget -- closely paralleled those of the same macaque RGC types, including the spatial and temporal light sensitivity, precisely coordinated mosaic organization of receptive fields, ON-OFF asymmetries, spatial response nonlinearity, and sampling of photoreceptor inputs over space. Putative smooth monostratified cells and polyaxonal amacrine cells were also identified based on similarities to cell types previously identified in macaque retina. The results suggest that recently proposed differences between human and macaque RGCs probably reflect experimental differences, and that the macaque model provides an accurate picture of human RGC function.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Lo Giudice ◽  
Marion Leleu ◽  
Pierre J. Fabre

ABSTRACTRetinal ganglion cells (RGC), together with cone photoreceptors, horizontal cells (HC) and amacrine cells (AC), are the first classes of neurons produced in the retina. Here we have profiled 5348 single retinal cells and provided a comprehensive transcriptomic atlas showing the broad diversity of the developing retina at the time when the four early-born cells are being produced. Our results show the transcriptional sequences that establish the hierarchical ordering of early cell fate specification in the retina. RGC maturation follows six waves of gene expression, giving new insight into the regulatory logic of RGC differentiation. Early-generated RGCs transcribe an increasing amount of guidance cues for young peripheral RGC axons that express the matching receptors. Finally, spatial signatures in sub-populations of RGCs allowed to define novel molecular markers that are spatially restricted during the development of the retina. Altogether this study is a valuable resource that identifies new players in mouse retinal development, shedding light on transcription factors sequence and guidance cues dynamics in space and time.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong T. Lam ◽  
Christian Gutierrez ◽  
Katia Del Rio-Tsonis ◽  
Michael L. Robinson

ABSTRACTEarly in mammalian eye development, VSX2, BRN3b, and RCVRN expression marks neural retina progenitors (NRPs), retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and photoreceptors (PRs), respectively. The ability to create retinal organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) holds great potential for modeling both human retinal development and retinal disease. However, no methods allowing the simultaneous, real-time monitoring of multiple specific retinal cell types during development currently exist. Here, we describe a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing strategy to generate a triple transgenic reporter hiPSC line (PGP1) that utilizes the endogenous VSX2, BRN3b, and RCVRN promoters to specifically express fluorescent proteins (Cerulean in NRPs, eGFP in RGCs and mCherry in PRs) without disrupting the function of the endogenous alleles. Retinal organoid formation from the PGP1 line demonstrated the ability of the edited cells to undergo normal retina development while exhibiting appropriate fluorescent protein expression consistent with the onset of NRPs, RGCs, and PRs. Organoids produced from the PGP1 line expressed transcripts consistent with the development of all major retinal cell types. The PGP1 line offers a powerful new tool to study retinal development, retinal reprogramming, and therapeutic drug screening.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Georges ◽  
Haruko Takeda ◽  
Arnaud Lavergne ◽  
Michiko Mandai ◽  
Fanny Lepiemme ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundIt has recently become possible to recapitulate retinal development from induced pluripotent stem cells, opening new investigative and therapeutic opportunities. Single cell RNA sequencing allows comparison of transcriptome unfolding during in vivo and in vitro development at single cell resolution, which can be integrated with information about accessible regulatory elements identified by ATAC-Seq.ResultsWe report the generation and analysis of single-cell RNA-Seq data (> 38,000 cells) from native and iPSC-derived murine retina at four matched developmental stages spanning the emergence of the major retinal cell types. We combine information from temporal sampling, visualization of 3D UMAP manifolds, and RNA velocity to show that iPSC-derived 3D retinal aggregates broadly recapitulate the native developmental trajectories with evidence supporting re-specification from amacrine cells to horizontal and photoreceptor precursor cells, as well as a direct differentiation of Tbr1+ retinal ganglion cells from neuro-epithelium cells. We show relaxation of spatial and temporal transcriptome control, premature emergence and dominance of photoreceptor precursor cells, and susceptibility of dynamically regulated pathways and transcription factors to culture conditions in iPSC-derived retina. We generate bulk ATAC-Seq data for native and iPSC-derived murine retina identifying ∼125,000 peaks. We combine single-cell RNA-Seq with ATAC-Seq information and obtain evidence that approximately halve the transcription factors that are dynamically regulated during retinal development may act as repressors rather than activators. We propose that sets of activators and repressors with cell-type specific expression control “regulatory toggles” that lock cells in distinct transcriptome states underlying differentiation, with subtle but noteworthy differences between native and iPSC-derived retina.ConclusionsCombined analysis of single-cell RNA-Seq and ATAC-Seq information has refined the comparison of native and iPS-derived retinal development.


Development ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (24) ◽  
pp. dev189746
Author(s):  
Michelle O'Hara-Wright ◽  
Anai Gonzalez-Cordero

ABSTRACTRetinal development and maturation are orchestrated by a series of interacting signalling networks that drive the morphogenetic transformation of the anterior developing brain. Studies in model organisms continue to elucidate these complex series of events. However, the human retina shows many differences from that of other organisms and the investigation of human eye development now benefits from stem cell-derived organoids. Retinal differentiation methods have progressed from simple 2D adherent cultures to self-organising micro-physiological systems. As models of development, these have collectively offered new insights into the previously unexplored early development of the human retina and informed our knowledge of the key cell fate decisions that govern the specification of light-sensitive photoreceptors. Although the developmental trajectories of other retinal cell types remain more elusive, the collation of omics datasets, combined with advanced culture methodology, will enable modelling of the intricate process of human retinogenesis and retinal disease in vitro.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estie Schick ◽  
Sean D. McCaffery ◽  
Erin E. Keblish ◽  
Cassandra Thakurdin ◽  
Mark M. Emerson

During vertebrate retinal development, transient populations of retinal progenitor cells with restricted cell fate choices are formed. One of these progenitor populations expresses the Thrb gene and can be identified with the ThrbCRM1 cis-regulatory element. Short-term assays have concluded that these cells preferentially generate cone photoreceptors and horizontal cells, however developmental timing has precluded an extensive cell type characterization of their progeny. Here we describe the development and validation of a recombinase-based lineage tracing system for the chicken embryo to further characterize the lineage of these cells. The ThrbCRM1 element was found to preferentially form photoreceptors and horizontal cells, as well as a small number of retinal ganglion cells. The photoreceptor cell progeny are exclusively cone photoreceptors and not rod photoreceptors, confirming that ThrbCRM1-progenitor cells are restricted from the rod fate. In addition, specific subtypes of horizontal cells and retinal ganglion cells were overrepresented, suggesting that ThrbCRM1 progenitor cells are not only restricted for cell type, but for cell subtype as well.


1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 785-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Bennis ◽  
Claudine Versaux-Botteri

AbstractNeurons containing catecholamine, indoleamine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were identified by immunohistochemistry in the chameleon retina. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and serotonin (5HT) were observed mostly in two subtypes of orthotopic amacrine cells differing in their soma size and process distribution within the IPL. Some labelled cells were displaced either to the IPL (5HT) or to the GCL (TH and 5HT). A multiplicity of retinal cell types contained GABA including cones, horizontal, amacrine, and ganglion cells. Our results confirmed those obtained in the retinas of other lizards except for the presence of interstitial and displaced amacrine cells containing TH or 5HT of which this is the first report.


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