Snapshots in Neuroscience: Mouse Retina Layers

These images have been selected to showcase the art that neuroscience research can create.

As described by the authors: “This image shows a cross-section of an adult mouse retina highlighting bipolar cells (red) colocalized with pan-bipolar cell marker VSX2 (green) and cone photoreceptor cells (red) in the inner and outer nuclear layers (DAPI), respectively. Here, bipolar cells and cone photoreceptor cells express channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2) fused with an enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) as a reporter of Lhx4 and CreERT2 activity. CreERT2 is expressed under the Lhx4 gene promoter, and tamoxifen induction activates its nuclear localization and recombination for subsequent expression of ChR2EYFP as a reporter.

“Bipolar cells relay visual signals from photoreceptors to ganglion cells and include many subtypes. However, the distinct structural and functional roles of bipolar cell subtypes in visual information processing remain poorly understood. In this study, we generated inducible Cre mouse lines driven by the promoters of Vsx1, Lhx3, and Lhx4 and crossed them with ChR2EYFP reporter mice to trace lineage and characterize bipolar cell subtypes in postnatal and adult mouse retinas. As described in the article, this inducible Cre tool allows precise timed genetic manipulation in Vsx1, Lhx3, and Lhx4—expressing retinal bipolar cell subtypes and cone photoreceptor cells.

"Immunostaining was performed on 14 µm retinal cryosections, and the image was acquired as collapsed 0.35 µm Z-stacks using a Leica Stellaris confocal microscope at 40× oil objective.”

Confocal microscopy image of Lhx4-expressing retinal bipolar cells (red) and cone photoreceptor cells (red). Cell bodies of the bipolar cells are colocalized with VSX2 (green) and DAPI-stained nuclei mark regions of the outer and inner nuclear layer as well as the ganglion cell layer. Image credit: Ebenezer Quainoo.

Read the full article:

Inducible CreERT2 mouse lines for characterization of retinal bipolar cell subtypes
Ebenezer J. Quainoo, Xiaoling Xie, Lotem Kol, Joseph Samson, and Lin Gan