Topographic mapping of retinal neurons in the European anchovy by nuclear staining and immunohistochemistry.

The anchovy retina is unique among vertebrates in being designed for polarization-contrast vision and has a marked cone area in the ventrotemporal quadrant for acute vision in the frontal field of view. Whereas cone topography and fine structure have been well examined in the European anchovy, the morphological organization of its inner retina is poorly understood so far. Using fluorescence staining of cell nuclei in combination with antibody stainings, the 3D pattern of cell nuclei was recorded coevally in all three retinal cell layers by confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the topographies of several neuron types were mapped separately across the retina.

3D-topography of cell nuclei in a vertebrate retina--a confocal and two-photon microscopic study.

We demonstrate methods to simultaneously acquire and evaluate the pattern of cell nuclei in the three cell layers of the vertebrate retina as an aspect of its functional morphology. 3D-position, shape and quantity of fluorescence-labelled cell nuclei are measured using laser scanning microscopy at several retinal locations, the pros and cons of single and two-photon excitation are compared. Subsequently topographies of all discriminable morphotypes are calculated via linear interpolation of local countings.