Abstract
Ocular growth and refraction are regulated by visual processing in the retina. We identified candidate regulatory neurons by immunocytochemistry for immediate-early gene products, ZENK (zif268, Egr-1) and Fos, after appropriate visual stimulation. ZENK synthesis was enhanced by conditions that suppress ocular elongation (plus defocus, termination of form deprivation) and suppressed by conditions that enhance ocular elongation (minus defocus, form deprivation), particularly in glucagon-containing amacrine cells. Fos synthesis was enhanced by termination of visual deprivation, but not by defocus and not in glucagon-containing amacrine cells. We conclude that glucagon-containing amacrine cells respond differentially to the sign of defocus and may mediate lens-induced changes in ocular growth and refraction.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a studentship from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and a University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship to A.J.F., grants from the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation, the University of Calgary Research Grants Committee and the Marigold Foundation of Calgary to W.K.S. and the Max Planck Prize to F.S.
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Fischer, A., McGuire, J., Schaeffel, F. et al. Light- and focus-dependent expression of the transcription factor ZENK in the chick retina. Nat Neurosci 2, 706–712 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/11167
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/11167
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