Figure 2.

The majority of Cx36 gap junctions in AII amacrine cells are on the arboreal dendrites. (A) Confocal z-stack reconstruction of AII amacrine cell in retina wholemount selectively labeled by recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 2 (rAAV2)-green fluorescent protein (GFP). In the vertical retinal view, stratification of a single AII amacrine cell (white) is shown through the five IPL strata. (B) In the 1.5 um thick vertical cryostat section, matched to the IPL area in (A), Cx36 puncta were predominantly present in the On-sublamina (strata 3–5). Cx36 were indirectly labeled by the mCx36 antibody (blue) and phosphorylated Cx36 at Ser293 were recognized by Ser293-P antibody (red). (C,D) In a retinal wholemount, a rAAV2-GFP-labeled AII amacrine cells expressed more Cx36 in stratum 5 (D, marked by dots) than in stratum 2 (C). Single confocal sections from the boxed areas were magnified (×6.2) and are shown on the right. Among all Cx36-positive puncta, the puncta colocalized with the processes of the AII amacrine cell are marked by arrows. Within the processes of the same AII amacrine cell different amount of phosphorylation was detected. Scale bars: 5 μm.