A morphological and morphometrical study of displaced amacrine cells in dog retina.

Abstract

The morphology and morphometry of displaced amacrine cells (DACs) have been investigated in dog retina with the aim of finding out differences in relation to their distance from the optic papilla and to their location within the nasal and temporal retina. The study was performed by using the Boycott and Peichl's silver impregnation method in wholemount retina (12) while the morphometry of the cell body and of the dendritic field was carried out by Leitz ASM 68K image analyser. No morphological difference was found between nasal and temporal cells although a variability, sometimes significative, in their morphometry was observed. Moreover, the morphological features of the DACs remained constant even by varying their distance from the optic papilla.