Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:15:07.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No age-related cell loss in three retinal nuclear layers of the Long-Evans rat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2007

LIXIA FENG ,
ZHAOXIA SUN ,
HUI HAN ,
YIFENG ZHOU  and
MING ZHANG
LIXIA FENG
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, P.R. China Department of Ophthalmology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, P.R. China
ZHAOXIA SUN
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, P.R. China
HUI HAN
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, P.R. China
YIFENG ZHOU
Affiliation:
School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China
MING ZHANG
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The retina mainly contains ganglion, bipolar and photoreceptor cells which are distributed in the ganglion cell layer (GCL), inner nuclear layer (INL) and outer nuclear layer (ONL), respectively. Whether there is an age-related loss of these retinal cells remains not well understood. Cell density and the total number of cells were two commonly used measures to evaluate such age-related changes in most previous studies and provided controversial conclusions. The use of density measures as decisive data is problematic because the total area of the retina was expanded in aging, whereas the application of the total number of cells was limited for assessing ganglion cells. In this study, thus, we wanted to test whether there is an age-related cell loss in the GCL, INL and ONL and if so, whether such a loss is correlated to the convergence ratio of these cells. We used stereological procedures to quantify the total number of cells in the three retinal nuclear layers in six young and six aged Long-Evans rats. We found that during aging, the total volume of the retina remained unchanged, but the retina became thinner. There was no cell loss in each individual nuclear layer, and the ratio of the ONL to INL to GCL was preserved.

Keywords

Cell numberRetinaAgingLong-Evans ratStereological method
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 24 , Issue 6 , November 2007 , pp. 799 - 803
Copyright
2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cano, J., Machado, A. & Reinoso-Suarez, F. (1986). Morphological changes in the retina of aging rats. Archchives of Gerontology Geriatrics 5, 41–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavallotti, C., Artico, M., Pescosolido, N. & Feher, J. (2001). Age-related changes in rat retina. Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology 45, 68–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavallotti, C., Cavallotti, D., Pescosolido, N. & Pacella, E. (2003). Age-related changes in rat optic nerve: Morphological studies. Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia: Journal of Veterinary Medicine 32, 12–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cepurna, W.O., Kayton, R.J., Johnson, E.C. & Morrison, J.C. (2005). Age related optic nerve axonal loss in adult Brown Norway rats. Experimental Eye Research 80, 877–884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curcio, C.A. & Allen, K.A. (1990). Topography of ganglion cells in human retina. Journal of Comparative Neurology 300, 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curcio, C.A., Millican, C.L., Allen, K.A. & Kalina, R.E. (1993). Aging of the human photoreceptor mosaic: Evidence for selective vulnerability of rods in central retina. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 34, 3278–3296.Google Scholar
Dunaief, J.L., Dentchev, T., Ying, G. & Hilam, A.H. (2002). The role of apoptosis in age-related macular degeneration. Archive of Ophthalmology 120, 1435–1442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, H. & Hollyfield, J.G. (1992). Aging of the human retina: Differential loss of neuroons and retinal pigment epithelial cells. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 33, 1–17.Google Scholar
Gundersen, H.J., Bagger, P., Bendtsen, T.F., Evans, S.M., Korbo, L., Marcussen, N., Møller, A., Nielsen, K., Nyengaard, J.R., Pakkenberg, B., Sørensen, F.B., Vesterby, A. & West, M.J. (1988a). The new stereological tools: Disector, fractionator, nucleator and point sampled intercepts and their use in pathological research and diagnosis. Acta Pathologica, Microbiologica et Immunologica Scandinavica 96, 857–881.Google Scholar
Gundersen, H.J. & Jensen, E.B. (1987). The efficiency of systematic sampling in stereology and its prediction. Journal of Microscopy 147, 229–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gundersen, K., Leberer, E., Lomo, T., Pette, D. & Staron, R.S. (1988b). Fibre types, calcium-sequestering proteins and metabolic enzymes in denervated and chronically stimulated muscles of the rat. Journal of Physiology 398, 177–189.Google Scholar
Harman, A.M., MacDonald, A., Meyer, P. & Ahmat, A. (2003). Numbers of neurons in the retinal ganglion cell layer of the rat do not change throughout life. Gerontology 49, 350–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, A.M. & Moore, S. (1999). Number of neurons in the retinal ganglion cell layer of the quokka wallaby do not change throughout life. Anatomical Record 256, 78–83.3.0.CO;2-K>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hupfeld, D. & Hoffmann, K.P. (2006). Motion perception in rats (Rattus norvegicus sp.): Deficits in albino Wistar rats compared to pigmented long-evans rats. Behavioural Brain Research 170, 29–33.Google Scholar
Katz, M.L. & Robison, W.G. (1986). Evidence of cell loss from the rat retina during senescence. Experimental Eye Research 42, 293–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, C.B.Y., Tom, B.W. & Spear, P.D. (1996). Effects of aging on the densities, numbers, and sizes of retinal ganglion cells in rhesus monkey. Neurobiology of Aging 17, 431–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, H. (1979). The inner plexiform layer in the retina of the cat: Electron microscopic observations. Journal of Neurocytology 8, 295–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, J.M., Mouton, P.R., Jucker, M. & Ingram, D.K. (1999). What counts in brain aging? Design-based stereological analysis of cell number. Journal of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Science 54, B404–B417.Google Scholar
Oorschot, D.E. (1994). Are you using neuronal densities, synaptic densities or neurochemical densities as your definitive data? There is a better way to go. Progress in Neurobiology 44, 233–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakkenberg, B., Moller, A., Gundersen, H.J., Mouritzen Dam, A. & Pakkenberg, H. (1991). The absolute number of nerve cells in substantia nigra in normal subjects and in patients with Parkinson's disease estimated with an unbiasted stereological method. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 54, 30–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, V.H. (1983). Evidence for an amacrine cell system in the ganglion cell layer of the rat retina. Neuroscience 6, 931–937.Google Scholar
Perry, V.H., Henderson, Z. & Linden, R. (1983). Postnatal changes in retinal ganglion cell and optic axon populations in the pigmented rat. Journal of Comparative Neurology 219, 356–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, A., Morrison, J.H., Rosene, D.L. & Hyman, B.T. (1998). Feature article: Are neurons lost from the primate cerebral cortex during normal aging? Cerebral Cortex 8, 295–300.Google Scholar
Rapp, P.R., Burwell, R.D. & West, M.J. (1996). Individual differences in aging: Implications for stereological studies of neuron loss. Neurobiology of Aging 7, 495–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutten, B.P.F., Korr, H., Steinbusch, H.W.M. & Schmitz, C. (2003). The aging brain: Less neurons could be better. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 124, 349–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanden, S.K., Wiggins, J.E., Goyal, M., Riggs, L.K. & Wiggins, R.C. (2003). Evaluation of a thick and thin section method for estimation of podocyte number, glomerular volume, and glomerular volume per podocyte in rat kidney with Wilms' tumor-1 protein used as a podocyte nuclear marker. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 14, 2484–2493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterling, P., Freed, M.A. & Smith, R.G. (1988). Architecture of rod and cone circuits to the on-beta ganglion cell. Journal of Neuroscience 8, 623–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wässle, H., Boycott, B.B. & Illing, R.-B. (1981a). Morphology and mosaic of on- and aff-beta cells in the cat retina and some functional considerations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 212, 177–195.Google Scholar
Wässle, H., Peichl, L. & Boycott, B.B. (1981b). Morphology and topography of on- and off-alpha cells in the cat retina. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 212, 157–175.Google Scholar
Weisse, I. (1995). Changes in the aging rat retina. Ophthalmic Research 27, 154–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickelgren, I. (1996). For the cortex, neuron loss may be less than thought. Science 273, 48–50.Google Scholar
Yuan, J. & Yankner, B.A. (2000). Apoptosis in the central nervous system. Nature 407, 802–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar