The mosaic of horizontal cells in the macaque monkey retina: With a comment on biplexiform ganglion cells

Abstract

To further characterize the H1 and H2 horizontal cell populations in macaque monkey retinae, cells were injected with the tracer Neurobiotin following intracellular recordings. Tracer coupling between cells of the same type revealed all H1 or H2 cells in small patches around the injected cell. The mosaics of their cell bodies and the tiling of the retina with their dendrites were analyzed. Morphological differences between the H1 and H2 cells observable in Neurobiotin-labeled patches made it possible to recognize H1 and H2 cells in retinae immunolabeled for the calcium-binding proteins parvalbumin and calbindin, and thus to study their relative spatial densities across the retina. These data, together with the intracellularly stained patches, show that H1 cells outnumber H2 cells at all eccentricities. There is, however, a change in the relative proportions of H1 and H2 cells with eccentricity: close to the fovea the ratio of H1 to H2 cells is ∼4 to 1, in midperipheral retina ∼3 to 1, and in peripheral retina ∼2 to 1. In both the Neurobiotin-stained and the immunostained retinae, about 3–5% of the H2 cells were obviously misplaced into the ganglion cell layer. Several features of the morphology of the misplaced H2 cells suggest that they represent the so-called “biplexiform ganglion cells” previously described in Golgi studies of primate retina.