Intricate paths of cells and networks becoming "Cholinergic" in the embryonic chicken retina.

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) are the decisive enzymatic activities regulating the availability of acetylcholine (ACh) at a given synaptic or nonsynaptic locus. The only cholinergic cells of the mature inner retina are the so-called starburst amacrine cells (SACs). A type-I SAC, found at the outer border of the inner plexiform layer (IPL), forms a synaptic subband "a" within the IPL, while a type-II SAC located at the inner IPL border projects into subband "d." Applying immunohistochemistry for ChAT and AChE on sections of the chicken retina, we here have revealed intricate relationships of how retinal networks became dominated by AChE or by ChAT reactivities. AChE+ cells were first detectable in an embryonic day (E)4 retina, while ChAT appeared 1 day later in the very same cells; at this stage all are Brn3a+, a marker for ganglion cells (GCs). On either side of a faint AChE+ band, indicating the future IPL, pairs of ChAT+ /AChE- /Brn3a- cells appeared between E7/8. Type-I cells had increased ChAT and lost AChE; type-II cells presented less ChAT, but some AChE on their surfaces. Direct neighbors of SACs tended to express much AChE. Along with maturation, subband "a" presented more ChAT but less AChE; in subband "d" this pattern was reversed. In conclusion, the two retinal cholinergic networks segregate out from one cell pool, become locally opposed to each other, and become dominated by either synthesis or degradation of ACh. These "cholinergic developmental divergences" may also have significant physiologic consequences.